


The Uzumaki

by Thobbs



Category: Naruto
Genre: Action/Adventure, Ayame is a good sister, BFFs Ino & Sakura, Being a jinchuriki is hard, Chuunin Naruto, Craftsman Naruto, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Eventual Romance, F/M, Fuuinjutsu Master Uzumaki Naruto, Kenjutsu Master Naruto, Master Mito & Apprentice Naruto, Mentor Mito, NaruIno, Naruto is a year older than Rookie 9, Naruto owns a shop, No Bashing, No rivalry for Sasuke, Water Style Naruto, Weaponsmith Naruto
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-21
Updated: 2020-11-18
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:35:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 12
Words: 79,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23761678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thobbs/pseuds/Thobbs
Summary: Naruto Uzumaki was destined for a lonely childhood, craving attention, wondering why he was shunned. Little did he know, in a desperate gambit his mother had set him up with a guardian angel, to teach him the ways of the Uzumaki, and that is what made all the difference. [Rated M for coarse language and implied sexual situations.]
Relationships: Uzumaki Kushina & Uzumaki Naruto, Uzumaki Mito & Uzumaki Naruto, Uzumaki Naruto/Yamanaka Ino
Comments: 33
Kudos: 213





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've finally decided to revise this chapter. When I wrote this chapter, it was my first time ever writing anything, and as you can guess, it was very choppy. I haven't made any significant changes to the story or added/removed plot-points. I just wanted to improve my writing.
> 
> This chapter was revised and reworked when I was writing Chapters 10, 11 and 12. So it should be closer in style to those. I haven't started working on chapter 2, so going forward unless I state it at the start of chapters 2-9, you might experience a slight dip in quality.

Kushina Uzumaki had dreaded this day; she knew giving birth would be an ordeal for her more so than when any other women went through labour. They had anticipated the complications of her pregnancy, taken into account the weakening of her seal and even kept time and location of it a secret. It still had gone wrong… so horribly wrong. Somehow the knowledge of where she would be giving birth had been compromised and now… the kyuubi, it was free, set free by the masked man with a lone sharingan.

She could feel her strength waning but not from giving birth. It was because the prison that was her body and soul had been broken. The simple fact that when a biju is ripped from them, the container would inevitably die was bearing down on her mind. As she lay there trying to muster the last dregs of her willpower to move about, trying to think of a solution, she could not help but tear up. The desire to curl up and cry her pain away felt overwhelmingly tempting.

She would no longer be able to see the warm sunrise, the cold touch of dewy grass, the soothing feeling of running water, she would try and lose herself in when she took a shower to wash away her frustrations.

Gasping through her tears, her mind struggling through details, she thought of countermeasures. The lump in her throat was growing painful as she had trouble swallowing, ‘ _Maybe they could seal the rampaging biju back inside her so she could take it to the grave, only if temporarily. It would reform, but it would take years to do so, and Konoha would be ready to seal it back in._ ’ 

As much as she felt this to be the right course of action, her resolve was shaking, desperate for an alternative. She felt like a coward, before giving birth, she would have regretted dying but ultimately would have accepted it as another aspect of her journey. She was a proud kunoichi, brace and deadly. That was identity. Now, she was a desperate mother.

Growing up alone after the death of her parents in the Uzu massacre, she had blossomed in her heart a fierce desire, for a life surrounded by those who loved her, those she could love in return. Now, the mere thought of parting with her baby boy, her Naruto, was too painful for her to bear. She loved him so much. Today was supposed to be a happy occasion, a bright memory shining a way for many more to come. She was finally here, she was finally going to start her own family, but now she would be losing it all.

Her handsome, loving husband and her beautiful son, all she could do for them was pray. Pray that they find happiness without her.

At least she still held some peace knowing that Minato would look after their son. With a new sense of purpose, she moved, unleashing chains made unbreakable by her chakra towards the Kyuubi.

She wasn’t willing to let Minato bear the entire burden alone. Even if she were dead, she would still help raise her child. She would make sure that Naruto would still grow up with the knowledge of her side of the family, the Uzumaki and their legacy.

As she tried to keep the kyuubi contained using her chakra chains, she quickly performed a summoning jutsu, causing a small box to appear. Opening the box and she looked inside. It already held a couple of items, a diary, some money, a few storage scrolls and a couple of photos. She took off her wedding ring and her hair clip, a cute black one she was partial to, and put them inside. After thinking about it some more, she tore off the collar of her dress carefully; the part which contained her husband’s Hiraishin formula and carefully placed it in; it would increase the chance of them finding the box. She gently closed the container and secured the lid. Quickly performing a variation of the reverse summoning jutsu tied to the box, she sent it back so it would not be destroyed.

Just after finishing the task, she became aware of her husband approaching her with Naruto in his arms.

“Minato-kun are you ready to seal the Kyuubi back inside me?” She whispered as she took Naruto from him gazing at her baby boy intently, desperately trying to take in every little detail of his face for the last time. From his red hair to his small face with no marks or blemishes, she felt that he was the most adorable thing ever. God, she could keep watching him forever.

“Kushina… there’s no need for you to die and take the kyuubi with you.” Minato Namikaze, the fourth hokage of Konoha stood up and looked towards the towering form of the biju struggling against the golden chains. “Preserve your chakra. I’ll seal half of it within Naruto using the Reaper’s death seal.”

Kushina quickly looked up at him, her eyes wide open mouth slightly ajar in befuddlement. ”But Minato the Reaper’s seal will result in your death. What… what about Naruto he would have to grow up alone with this burden, not knowing, not understanding what it means to be a jinchuriki. We need love, Minato. To hold the demon, and not fall into its darkness.”

“I believe in him. Do you remember Master Jiraiya’s words about ending the curse of hatred? I believe Naruto will be the one to put an end to it.” Minato said as he started going through the hand signs to summon the Reaper.

“But why do you have to use the reaper seal. You could live on… you could teach him… watch over him because I could not.” Kushina sobbed clutching Naruto to her bosom.

“I’ll need its power to split the Kyuubi in half. Half of it I will seal inside Naruto and half of it I will take with me to the shinigami’s belly. It will also allow me to put your chakra inside him so he can meet you, and you can help him when he needs it.”

She couldn’t fully understand it. Why was there a need to seal the Kyuubi now rather than later? They could use a similar seal to own when it reforms. By then Naruto would have grown older; old enough to understand this burden like herself at the age of 12 when the Kyuubi was sealed inside her.

“You don’t have to die Minato, just wait, I’ll take it with me it will be years before it comes back, and you could be better prepared Naruto… Naruto will be older too, as old as I was when I accepted this burden, then you could seal it within him, whole of it.” She begged, tears freely falling. She was tired, her mind was sluggish, she could not fight, all she could do was ask her husband to take a different route.

“To forsake your country is to forsake yourself. Kushina, I know you understand that. The Kyuubi reforming would be an event. Konoha might not survive its onslaught as well as defend against the other villages. Besides, there are some things that only you could say to him.” Minato calmly said looking at her as he completed the seals for the shinigami to appear.

She felt Minato was being naive, right now. This was a very heavy burden, something that was hard to understand for those who did not share it. She too believed in her son, but she believed him to be human, not some noble child of prophecy… he was a child…her child…he would make mistakes like she did…he would hate like she did…but would he love when no one loved him. Maybe Jiraya would raise him to be a capable person, he was Naruto’s godfather after all, but what if he couldn’t.

Making up her mind, she did some quick one-handed seals. As she watched Minato trying to complete the sealing process, she completed a small seal of her own. She gently placed it onto Naruto’s palm, creating a spiral mark and watched it fade into his skin all the while praying that he will find the way to their legacy using it.

* * *

( _Somewhere behind the Senju clan compound_ )

It was a small building one of the oldest in Konoha, and unlike the others of its time, it wasn’t made of wood. It was made of massive red stones transported from the Land of whirlpool. The Senju created it as a symbol of their alliance. A promise that Konoha would grant a home to any Uzumaki that would come seeking shelter.

Inside only a few moments ago, a small box had reappeared suddenly in a puff of smoke. Someone inside the building was watching it curiously when suddenly the box shined once as a small seal appeared on it.

Mito Uzumaki studied the seal from a distance and understood the use of it immediately. She slowly closed her eyes as her mind ran through the implications of it.

“Kushina-chan, please be all right.” She whispered as she faded again from existence. All she could do now was preserve her essence and wait.

* * *

Five years old Naruto Uzumaki was bored, even aimlessly wandering around the outskirts of the village had lost its charm after the hundredth time. There was not much he could do honestly, as he had no friends to play with, or even someone to spend time with. He always felt his apartment to be unfeeling and small, as if in the next moment, the walls would move in and swallow him whole. The only things he owned that were distracting to him were a couple of storybooks, but he had already read through them several times.

He just couldn’t understand why no one would play with him or even look at him for that matter. Everywhere he went, he would be ignored, no look of acknowledgement. Even when he bumped into someone, they would simply walk on as if nothing had happened, and he hated it. He had tried asking why and even tried shouting once, but it had no effect.

The old-man in the funny hat, the hokage he had later found out, had told him that people will understand someday and will accept him. He frankly couldn’t understand what there was to accept, did he do something wrong or was it that something was wrong with him. He wasn’t stupid, he knew there had to be a reason, so he tried to figure it out like he always did.

It couldn’t be because of his red hair, he thought because he had seen several people with all kinds of different hair colours from white to pink to even purple, granted he hadn’t seen anyone with red hair, but it shouldn’t be that weird, right? Then, he thought maybe it was because of the whisker marks he had on his face, like a kitty-cat, but he had seen people with different marks on their face too. It certainly couldn’t be his eyes, they were violet in colour (he had to look it up in his books, the one about numbers and colours) there were lots of people with weirder eyes than his. He had even seen a girl that had no black spot in the middle. Later he found out that there was a whole family of people with those grey eyes walking about.

He just couldn’t figure out why he was treated differently; he was just a kid, right? He had seen how the adults treated other kids even when they did something wrong, maybe he did something so bad that they were punishing him, but he couldn’t remember doing anything to anyone.

As he walked, he continued looking down in front of him because if he looked up, he would see them… not seeing him. Then he would feel that familiar feeling of anger and hate he always felt, trying to overwhelm him, creeping and crawling within him. He would then want to break something, lash out at someone. He hated that feeling because it only made him sadder. He had promised himself he won’t get angry; he won’t cry. If he behaved maybe someone would want him… maybe.

Suddenly, he felt something from his hand, a faint pulse of warmth. Naruto would have thought he had imagined it only if he didn’t feel it again and again and again as he walked towards where he felt the thrum in his hand, getting quicker and quicker. He walked under some fences and through the woods, ducking and weaving through the foliage, never did he have to turn, the path was straight. His hand was leading him somewhere.

After a while, he came upon an old building behind the clan compounds some ways off from their walls. He had never been here as he wasn’t allowed near the clan buildings. He made his way towards the door. His hand felt a steady warmth, and as he placed it on the door, he felt a faint prickle. He was reasonably surprised when a lot of squiggly lines of writing appeared where he had touched the door. Moved by an unseen force the door opened.

The inside of the building was quite dark, but Naruto could still make out a lot of stuff. It was so cool, even if it was dusty, and maybe if he cleaned this place, he could make this place his secret hideout to bring his friends when he made some.

“And who are you, little one?” Naruto heard a soft voice come from behind him, and he turned, prompting him to turn quickly and see if he needed to run.

There, now in front of him, stood a woman. She had long bright-red hair like his own, wound in two buns held by pins with some sort of tags attached to them, and she wore what appeared to be a crown on top of her head. Her eyes were slightly darker than his. She wore a white kimono, red lipstick and had rhombus-shaped marking on her forehead. She was smiling kindly down at him.

Seeing her smile, he calmed down a little bit and asked the first question that came into his mind rather exuberantly before he could help himself. ”Are you a princess?”

He had read about princesses; they often wore elaborate kimonos and crowns; they were very beautiful and kind. She had to be one; maybe he could help her like the heroes did and be a cool shinobi.

She chuckled slightly “I might be. Why don’t you introduce yourself first?”

“I’m… Naruto Uzumaki.” He said with some hesitation after seeing that her expression didn’t change much, on the contrary, she looked slightly happier, he asked tentatively “Who are you?”

Mito watched the little boy in front of her carefully. She already had a suspicion of his identity; he looked so much like Kushina it was unbelievable. Sure she could see slight differences, surely from his father the blonde boy Kushina had once shown her a photograph of, but those were scarce. The boy looked remarkably like Kushina when she was this young, same pair of eyes, same hair, albeit a lot shorter, framing his chubby face making him look like a tomato she mused fondly, albeit with some very curious markings on his cheeks. Honestly the child in front her was adorable.

She had watched the same exuberance and energy come onto his face that all Uzumaki children seemed to possess when he asked her if she was a princess but felt her heart sink as she watched apprehension and dread creep into his face and voice after. She had suspected something terrible had happened to Kushina all those years ago, only for the feeling to strengthen as Kushina had failed to revisit her.

“I’m Mito Uzumaki.”

“Uzu- UZUMAKI, like me, lady? Do you know my mommy and daddy?” Naruto all but screamed at hearing the name. She had the same surname as his maybe she would know who his parents were and perhaps she could help him find them wherever they were.

“I’m not entirely certain, but I can help you find out. Do you know what chakra is?”

“Catra?” Naruto was very excited if this catra thing could help him find his family; he would learn all about in no time; he liked to learn anyway.

“I guess not.” She chuckled. “It’s pronounced chakra; everybody that is alive has it, even the plant and the trees. It allows us to do many wondrous things.”

“Like how those ninja jump really high and- and shoot fire from their mouths.” He asked excitedly mimicking blowing fire with his mouth.

“Correct. Now listen carefully, you might already be familiar with what chakra feels like. When you entered here, you touched the door at the front, right?” seeing him nod, Mito continued “So when you touched the door you might have felt a tingly warmth when writing appeared on it; that is your chakra being used to open the lock.” She told him slowly so he could understand.

“But if I don’t know what it is, how did I use it?” Naruto scrunched his face in thought as he looked at his hand. He had felt this chakra as he had walked here, but how did he do it.

She smiled a bit wider; little Naru seemed bright. “You didn’t. Did you feel it on your hand?” she asked already suspecting the answer, seeing him nod she continued, “I suspect your hand has a seal on it, that seal might have drawn your chakra for you.”

“Wow.” 

“Wow indeed, how about we try to unlock your chakra so we can find out about your parents?”

Naruto nodded enthusiastically. He was ready. Finally, he would know.

“Good, now sit down on the ground with your legs crossed and close your eyes. Try not to move too much, and feel around slightly above your stomach for that tingly warmth.” She instructed him softly and watched him try to follow her words to the letter. She knew it would take some time as children were generally antsy, more so for the Uzumaki ones. Still, they, the Uzumaki, were usually blessed with more chakra to feel around for, so it shouldn’t be impossible even if Naruto was too young.

And sure enough, after an hour or two of coxing him gently to stay still, he had succeeded, slightly quicker than she had expected. After that, they had worked in accessing his chakra so he could pour it into objects and surfaces, the most basic of chakra application.

“Now try and push your chakra into your hand where you felt that pulse earlier, but try and push as little as possible.” There was always a concern of pushing too much or very potent chakra into a seal that would result in eroding it or damaging it. But in this case, Mito was not that concerned over it; if the seal was made by Kushina, it should remain. Uzumaki always have possessed an incredibly potent chakra that resulted in creating more enduring seals; it was one of the little things that made their seals better. Even if someone had corrosive chakra akin to a biju it would take considerable effort to break an Uzumaki seal.

Naruto gently pushed his chakra into the palm of his hand and was delighted to watch a small seal appear onto it. He looked towards the nice lady in barely restrained anticipation, waiting for her to tell him what to do next.

She motioned him to follow her as they went to a side room and stopped in front of a small box. It looked to be unmoved in ages, there was an undisturbed layer of dust covering it.

“Put your hand on the lid on top and push your chakra as you did before.” She said as she made some room for him to crouch down before the box.

Naruto quickly did as he was told and heard a slight clicking noise as the box opened. He looked inside and found all sorts of little knickknacks, but his interest was quickly grabbed by the photo of a young woman in her early twenties, smiling at the camera. He quickly looked towards Mito as if to seek confirmation.

She gently nodded “That is Kushina Uzumaki my great-grandniece. Your mother, Naru-chan.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

* * *

Mito looked sadly at the kneeling form of Naruto as he traced the form of his mother with his little fingers, sobbing slightly; she wanted to hug him closely and comfort him but sadly she couldn’t, it just wasn’t meant to be. Just the fact that she was witnessing this scene was a miracle.

After what felt like ages to him, Naruto looked up to the woman, he had many questions he wanted to be answered, this was his mother; he wanted to know more about her, where was she, did she leave him and so much more, but to him the most important question was “Did she love me?”

Mito replied without pause, as if it was natural, “More than anything.” 

Naruto gulped slightly and rubbed the tears out of his eyes to calm himself; he gathered his nerves to ask the next question something he was fearful to know the answer to, “Do you know where she is?”

Now, this was a tough question for Mito to answer, she was reasonably certain that Kushina was not alive anymore because if she was, come hell or high water there was nothing in this world that would keep her away from her child unless she was physically incapable of doing so, … and there was the rub what if she was physically incapable of coming, that was highly improbable with her being a jinchuriki and having the Uzumaki life force within her. The Uzumaki were blessed with strong bodies by the sage of six paths himself or so the legend went; the members of their clans never became sick if something didn’t kill them within an hour, be it an injury, blood loss or even poison they would recover from it. That was one of the reasons the Uzumaki were so behind in medical knowledge than most clans, they simply didn’t have much need for it beyond patching simple wounds or cauterizing missing limbs. There was another possibility of her being captured and this was where she was tripping in giving Naruto a straight answer. She had a decision to make - tell Naruto that there is a chance she could be alive and probably give him false hope or tell him she had died when she was not too sure herself.

“Come by tomorrow Naru-chan I will tell you about it tomorrow; it’s getting late everybody at home would be getting worried about you.”

“Why can’t you tell me now? No, ones waiting for me home.”

“What do you mean that no one’s waiting for you?” She asked quizzically, to her Naruto looked too young to be looking after the house by himself and be left alone this late.

“I live alone. Nobody cares about me. Please tell me now where my mom is.”

“You live alone?” asked Mito ignoring his request for the moment. “How long - How old are you Naru-chan?” She asked somewhat frantically. This was a child living alone, let alone someone bearing a clan name, there was no way he would be safe enough from kidnapping attempts. Who was taking care of him, feeding him, making sure he eats right and doesn’t hurt himself. It did not matter that he comes from a family of ninjas, there was no excuse for not taking care of a child, after living for as long as she had and through multiple wars she felt that there was certainly something about being too young. She had hated seeing children as young as five or six being sent to battlefields and even then Naruto didn’t look trained to ward off any attackers.

“I’m five. I’ve been living alone for about a year.” He said while holding his hand up showing five fingers.

“And before that.”

“I don’t remember much but there was this old lady who took care of me for a while and taught me to make food, read and write and other stuff.” He answered her quickly. He continued heatedly not even realizing the bite he had when asking “Can you tell me now, please?”

She saw little red flecks of red dancing in his eyes as the boy was getting agitated, and was starting to come to a horrible conclusion, a very horrible conclusion; she had seen that happen to two other people one of them was her and other was the boy’s mother.

“Lift up your shirt and start channelling chakra through your body, now.” She said somewhat urgently and with a stern voice.

Now normally Naruto wouldn’t have done so after repeatedly being denied more answers about his mother, but seeing her now he faltered. At this moment the woman looked rather imperious, she had an air of nobility around her that made it seem as if she was used to people following her orders; her whole demeanour demanded respect. So he hesitantly did as he was told and saw her looking rather intently at his stomach than close her eyes as she let out a soft sigh. Deciding to look for himself he looked down at his stomach and saw a rather large swirly seal appear; it was way bigger and much more detailed than the one on his hand. Another mystery seal on his body. He wondered if had any more of those. He could see himself covered in funny squiggly lines from head to toe, and would have laughed if the situation wasn’t so serious.

“Okay, Naruto I know you said that no one would be looking for you if you returned late, I don’t believe that is possible, people will start searching for you if you disappeared for a long time, trust me. Go home-” She gave him a stern look as it appeared he was about to interrupt her, then continued “come back tomorrow morning, and I’ll answer every question you might have.”

Naruto looked at her for a while, than rather quietly asked “Do you promise.”

“I promise.” Mito said gently “Don’t tell anybody about this place or about me Naru-chan or they might stop you from coming back do you understand?” She added seeing him look at the box “and leave everything in the box here, where it will remain safe, otherwise people might take it from you.”

Naruto nodded and left the building quietly.

As she watched Naruto leave Mito began to piece everything together from the clues she had gathered from his visit and Kushina’s lack of. She tried to recall every minor and major detail Kushina has informed her about the village, and her pregnancy. Everything that would help her make sense about little Naruto’s situation and how she would have to move forward; she had sensed a rather big plan in play regarding him, and she didn’t like it one bit. This was her kin and she would be dammed if she lost another one. Only two people remained of her family now- Naruto, and her granddaughter; she had to secure the legacy of their ancestors.

* * *

As Naruto walked out of the building it was starting to turn dark he made his way through the village walking by the little shops and restaurants, not one of which would serve him. It wasn’t as anyone stopped him from entering their establishment but when no one would serve you or even take orders there was little you could do other than make a scene; which he had learned didn’t help him much. It was an unfair treatment, he knew, and it hurt. He made his way towards the little ramen stand, one of the only ones that welcomed him unconditionally. He pushed all those thoughts out of his mind as he reached Ichiraku Ramen bar. The ramen was heavenly, and the old man and his daughter that owned the bar were very kind people. He entered the bar and greeted the girl working behind the counter warmly, “Hey Ayame, give me a miso ramen please.” He looked around “Where’s old man Teuchi?”

“He is in the back. It’s closing time soon so there is not much cooking to do right now.” She said as she placed a bowl of Miso ramen in front of him. “How come you are here today?” She asked with slight puzzlement; Naruto usually only came twice a week and never this late; she knew he lived on a tight budget and couldn’t afford to eat more than he did, sometimes her father would give him an extra bowl or two for free, but they had to coax him into taking them as some form of celebration for some accomplishment no matter how small. For a child this young he had a strange sense of pride for not accepting help easily.

“I got too caught up in wandering through the village and it turned this late, didn’t feel like making something for my self today.” He replied as he ordered another bowl.

“You came at the right time. I was cleaning my room and found something, wait for a bit and I’ll give it to you.” She said as she placed another bowl in front of him and moved to the back of the shop where their house was. Naruto had stayed once or twice for the night in their house- like recently when they had celebrated his birthday. It was a small affair with the Ichirakus and they had given him some clothes as present, he truly cared for them and was glad to have been accepted by them for whatever wrong he had done.

“Here.” Ayame said as she placed a stack of books in front of him. “These are some books from when I went to the trade school. I don’t need them anymore, you can have them or I would have to throw them out. They are very old. I bought them from a second-hand book store”

Naruto looked at the titles and saw some about basic accounting, language and writing books which were fairly thick, as well as several thin books about general skills like woodworking, sewing, gardening etc. The seams were slightly frayed, and seemed to be repaired by some sewing thread to hold them together and gluing paper on the spine so as to rebind them. He thanked Ayame for the books and the food which earned him getting his cheeks pinched. He only allowing her to do so on special occasions, paid for the food and left for his apartment. He quickly went in, placed the books on the only table he had in his home, brushed his teeth and went to sleep, eagerly waiting for tomorrow morning so he could go back to his grandma to get some answers. As he was going to sleep he suddenly realized a happy little thought; because of his excitement in finding out about his mother he completely glossed over the fact that he had a grandma; someone from his family. He wasn’t as alone now as he was yesterday; life was looking up.

* * *

Naruto jumped out of his bed quite excitedly, running to the bathroom he quickly finished all his daily business, and quickly prepared himself some breakfast, using the rice cooker to make some fluffy white rice, he took it out in a bowl, cracked an egg on top of it while adding some soy sauce and little bit of salt, and mixed it all with a pair of chopsticks and dug in. Finishing it up and putting it into the sink he ran some water on the bowl and left it there; he would have to wash it when he came back, but he was simply too excited to care about it right now.

Closing up the door to his apartment and locking the door behind him he looked towards the sky it was getting brighter by the second and still too early for most people. Maybe he should buy a clock, it would make things easier, but first he would look around the neighbourhood, he might find one that someone has thrown out and fix it. He didn’t know much about fixing clocks or anything about them really, but if he could figure it out somehow he might get a free clock, and it was a great way to kill some time when he was bored.

He ran towards the building from yesterday; through the overgrown underbrush and pushed his hand onto the door and letting the seal do its magic. He made his way inside and looked for his newly found grandmother. He looked around but couldn’t find her,

“Good morning Naru-chan.” Just like yesterday the voice came from behind him, he turned around to find her standing in the middle of the room; he briefly wondered where she came from but pushed the thought quickly aside and greeted her back.

“Morning Mito-baachan.”

She chuckled slightly, “Now Naruto I have decided to tell you everything about your mother, about me, our clan and even something’s about you that you might not know. But before that you have to tell everything about yourself so that I can tell you everything with as much certainty as I can.”

Naruto was confused slightly at first about what she would tell him about himself, but it occurred to him that maybe she would tell him about why he was treated different from anyone else. So, he told her about everything about him living with an old lady for about three years and some odd months, then one day the lady simply disappeared, how the hokage would come to visit him from time to time and leave him some money every month, how he would sometimes take him for ramen every once in a while, and how everyone in the village treated him and he had no idea why. She asked him how he felt about all treatment and after some coxing on her part he admitted feeling lot of anger, hate and sadness. Which he tried not to show but sometimes all of it just felt too much.

“I’m sorry Naru that you have to live like this.” Mito said after a short while. Her clear voice filled with sadness.

“Why are you apologizing it’s not your fault.”

“Maybe not directly.” She continued gently “For you to understand why, I’ll have to start from the beginning, from who I am to where I come from; I’m Mito Uzumaki of the Uzumaki clan wed into the Senju clan to Hashirama Senju head of his clan to establish a more solid treaty between Uzushiogakure no Sato in land of whirlpools a very small village, home to the Uzumaki, and the new budding village of Konohagakure no Sato created by Hashirama of the Senju clan and Madara Uchiha of the Uchiha Clan and some other major and minor clans to stop the long ongoing war that was plaguing the land of fire for decades. The Uzumaki clans are distantly related to the Senju and already had a very amiable relationship with them. Uzu was situated in the islands and we were mainly in conflict with clans form the land of water, the Yuki, Hozuki and the Hoshigaki before they established themselves as Kiri and we were also defending ourselves from the barbarians of the Kaguya clan. We were famous for our longevity, life force, large chakra reserves, weapon making and fuinjutsu- the art of making seals.”

Seeing Naruto paying close attention she continued, happily reminiscing about their shared history, “When Konoha was established, the land of fire came into a relatively peaceful time and the village was gaining very significant strength very quickly. Which was only natural with such strong clans as the Senju, Uchiha, Hyuga, Kurama and other all coming under one banner, the head of the Uzumaki clan, my uncle, decided to put forth a formal treaty to strengthen the ties between the two villages so we could secure peace with the clans of Land of water because of the threat of Konoha by our side, by giving my hand in marriage. I was married to Hashirama as the princess of the Uzumaki clan and not as the proud kunoichi of the whirlpool I was.” She paused for a while and took a deep breath.

Naruto looked at her intently from his position on the floor, somehow he could feel this was a very sensitive issue for the woman, but he couldn’t help himself from asking, “You didn’t want to get married.”

“No it wasn’t that, I did come to love Hashirama, and after a while I was happily married. It was my position within the village, I was raised to be ninja by my clan and I aspired to be great; to be remembered as a strong kunoichi and the greatest seal master to walk these lands.” She chuckled lightly. “But now here I was as the wife of the first ever hokage, the leader of the village and everyone suddenly seemed to forget that I was a fearsome kunoichi who had battled against the hordes of Kaguya and defended against attack from the clans of the water; that I could go toe to toe against the heads of these clans, I was the one who single handily designed the barrier that was to be put around this very village, and this barrier would provide it with the defence required to respond to outside threats.”

Naruto frowned and asked her in confirmation, “You couldn’t be a ninja anymore?”

“Sadly no. Konoha was in relative peace and the village had started working for the daimyo in a greater capacity than they did as individual clans. But behind the apparent peace Madara was getting angrier with Konoha and its people.”

“Why, didn’t he and Hashirama-jiji make Konoha together?”

“They didn’t make Konoha Naru; they founded it. It was Hashirama’s popularity that would become the problem. When they had thought of founding the village Hashirama and Madara had thought of leading Konoha together, but in the eyes of the people Hashirama was always more trustworthy, and thus they were more willing to follow him than Madara. After a while it was decided by all the clans to choose Hashirama as their leader making him the shodaime, even the Uchiha wanted Hashirama as their leader rather than the Head of their own clan. Hashirama had objected to it at first, and was willing to give the seat to Madara, but no one else was comfortable with letting Madara lead them, as they had come to enjoy the peace after long time of fighting. Everyone felt that Madara would just lead them to another war as he had grown darker with the death of his brother Izuna. Madara saw this as the ultimate betrayal and left the village in rage vowing to raze it to the ground along with his own kin.”

Naruto was entranced by the story at this point, he had known some of it, like the founding of the village but listening to Mito’s story that had so much detail was thrilling.

“Konoha continued to prosper, and seeing this other clans all over the elemental nations began coming together, to in create their own villages. East of Uzu Kiri was formed and up north of Uzu, Kumo. West of Konoha Suna and Iwa were created. Everyone had become slightly agitated, as fledgling villages they were very worried about someone encroaching into their territories. About this time Hashirama had received news about Madara and decided to seek him out to bring him back to the village, we had disagreement about his decision to go after him alone; he argued that I was biased against Madara as I had always despised him because of the past where the Uzumaki had helped the Senju against Uchiha and lost a lot of men and women against them. I had argued that he was the one who was biased. Madara may have been a good friend to Hashirama before but he wasn’t anymore; Hashirama had new responsibilities, to the village, to me, and to the family we were going to start in a few months.”

“Family?” Naruto questions weren’t they already a family.

Mito smiled ruefully of course he wouldn’t get it, “I was going to have a baby.” She didn’t want to go in the mechanics of it. She would have to find a way to tell him about it in the future without traumatizing him.

She continued on before he could ask more questions about that subject, “But he was too stubborn and went on anyway; I followed after him using a locator seal I had placed on him discreetly and kept my distance from his sensory range which thankfully was not that large. I had decided to keep my distance and had no intension of interfering because as powerful as Madara was; Hashirama was on a whole another level with his Mokuton.”

“What’s a Mokuton?”

“Mokuton was Hashirama bloodline limit, it was entirely unique to him maybe someone down the generation could have awakened it but to this day no one has. It allowed him to make and control trees. It is the strongest bloodline limit I have seen.” Mito after all these years was still in awe about the great power Mokuton provided its user.

“Making trees don’t seem strong” Naruto said as he imagined someone making a tree only to be burned to a crisp by a fireball to the face.

“Mokuton ..,” she deliberated in how to describe it to Naruto so he could understand it. “You have seen the forest around Konoha correct? Well, all of It he created in an instant using his ability, but more importantly you remember how I told you that every living thing had chakra in them, well Mokuton created living trees, what do you think that would mean?” She asked Naruto, something she used to do to all of her children and Kushina to encourage them to think and find answers with whatever information they had. It allowed them to think for themselves, she had already decided to teach Naruto everything he needed to know, so he could live a happier life even with the burden he held.

Naruto scrunched his eyebrows in thought as he tried to recall whatever he could about chakra he knew from the conversation he had yesterday and the information he was given now, “If he could make living trees and the living trees could make chakra; he could maybe make his own chakra quickly?”

“Good job, but there is more to it than that you see plants and trees don’t have the same type of chakra that we do, they possess something called nature chakra which if you are able to harness gives far superior abilities, and these trees were part of himself he could instinctively draw out nature energy without a hassle. Nature chakra also had the tendency to overwhelm and suppress regular chakra and since the wood is part of him he would use it to suppress other people’s chakra. So the bloodline limit gave him the ability to strengthen himself and weaken others. Do you now understand why I consider it to be so strong?”

Naruto nodded it did sound super strong all of a sudden.

“Madara seeing that he was losing the fight did something that was thought as impossible, he summoned the kyuubi to fight for him by controlling it, an ability provided by Madara’s unique sharingan- the Uchiha bloodline. Do you know about the Kyuubi and the other biju?”

This Naruto knew about, how the Fourth Hokage- the greatest Hero of Konoha had defeated the Nine-tailed Fox in single combat and sacrificed his life to save the village. “I do. The Yondaime defeated it when the Kyuubi attacked the village. I read that it was huge, easily ten times the size of the hokage tower.”

“He did huh.” She highly doubted that this Yondaime defeated the Kyuubi by himself knowing that Kushina had to be nearby for the Kyuubi to even appear, but it would be more surprising if anyone else’s contribution was even acknowledged; the Hokage needs to be the strongest, and should require no help. “Do you know when that was?”

“Yep. It’s October 10 same as my birthday.” Naruto replied cheerily. These hokage sounded very strong now that he thought about it.

“I see. Then you see how terrifying the thought is, of one man capable of controlling one of the strongest of the tailed beast- something that is considered a force of nature itself when, it required a kage to sacrifice himself to stop it.” Mito continued with a serious tone, trying to instil in Naruto the gravity of the situation.

“But even with the Kyuubi Madara lost the fight and escaped somehow, it was not to say that Hashirama was stronger than the Kyuubi, he very well might have been but somehow Mokuton had this suppressing effect on the Kyuubi that just put it to sleep. But it posed a new set of problems; that Madara could somehow summon the Kyuubi and if Hashirama was not in the village he could use it to flatten it was very troubling. So I made a decision, something to this day I don’t know if it was correct or not I used the Uzumaki secret sealing technique, The Eight Trigram seal, to seal the Kyuubi inside of me. You see capturing a biju and sealing it inside someone was unheard of and only Shukaku the wind spirit was ever been successfully sealed and frankly at that time it wasn’t even known as a biju, it was thought to be the spirit of the desert by the people there. When Hashirama came to know about this he was worried, a single village holding something like this would only provoke aggression from the others, so he decided to use his bloodline to capture the other biju so he could distribute it to the other villages he thought were large enough to mount an invasion against Konoha to force a non-aggression pact. Tobirama- Hashirama’s brother was not convinced about the distributing biju to the other villages but relented later on. Time went on we found out that the Kyuubi in me had certain effect on my psyche- that is my mind, as it was a mass of hate and malice; sometime my behaviour would become rather aggressive and destructive. I was having nightmares and sometimes it felt as if I was losing my mind.

Listening up to now had Naruto very worried about her and he couldn’t help but ask, “But you were fine after, right?”

Mito simply smiled gently as a way to reassure him, “I had to meditate and come to peace with lot of stuff about myself that I had disliked and refused to acknowledge before, but the love of my family and Hashirama helped me through the process. Then Hashirama died, Tobirama stepped up as the Hokage he created a lot of facilities and infrastructure, the academy the hospital, the police, the ANBU to name a few. He was ambushed when he went to sign a treaty with Kumo and sacrificed himself to protect his students and appointed one of them Hiruzen Sarutobi- Sasuke Sarutobi’s son as the third hokage.”

“That’s Jiji; he comes to visit me sometimes.” Naruto told her excitedly he liked the old man hokage. Mito on the other hand was not much of a fan of him at the moment, if her assumptions were correct Sarutobi had made choices she was not happy with, and she had a feeling after today Naruto would not be either.

She continued on with her story, “With the act of aggression against the Konoha the wars started again. I was growing old and I knew I would have to pass my burden to someone else, sadly kyuubi unlike the others of its kind was simply too powerful and required someone with great life force and potent chakra to contain it; my children didn’t inherit my potent chakra neither did my grandkids. Hashirama’s blood was too strong it suppressed all the Uzumaki traits in them, they did inherit a vast chakra pool and control over it from him. Perfect chakra control was something an Uzumaki wouldn’t be able to achieve, at least not naturally, but my children and grandchildren did, though it did require considerable effort. So your mother was sent from the Uzu to be new vassal of the Kyuubi, she was to be trained as the kunoichi of Konoha.” She paused here knowing that what she was going to say next would be the important bit that would be hard for him to make peace with. “When a biju is released from its host the host dies so I helped Kushina come to terms with how to live with the knowledge of something destructive living inside you and the only thing holding it back is you will.”

Naruto had felt the change instantaneously even if he didn’t know yet; the story had changed from something fantastical to, a story, to retelling of an event. He suddenly felt uneasy as two questions popped into his mind one more urgent to his current situation that he chose to ask, “Are you a ghost then?” He was afraid of the answer but thankfully not terrified.

“No.” She said and Naruto felt relief which regretfully last only for a moment. “But I’m not alive either.” She continued on “I’m a part of my chakra that is tethered to this impure world made possible by using seals, don’t worry Naru I won’t ever harm you.” She knew he wouldn’t understand any of it and sure enough he didn’t. All he got from it was not ghost something-something chakra and seals and most importantly she was still nice.

Then he remembered the second question he wanted to ask “Mom is not alive anymore?” He asked feeling somewhat sick.

“I’m sorry Naruto.”

Naruto made his way to where he had left the little box; opening it he ignored everything and went straight for the photo he had seen yesterday. He just sat there looking at it as tears started falling from his eyes.

Mito stood behind him and let him mourn; this was only the beginning she had to remind herself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to post a comment if you have a question on the direction of the story and if you have any suggestions on how I should improve my writing.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

* * *

Hiruzen Sarutobi felt weary. It had been almost 14 years since he had to retake the position of hokage after the untimely death of his successor. It had been as rocky as he had remembered it to be, and he had led Konoha through three wars. Sure there had been less threats but Konoha was significantly weaker now than it ever was; even after coming out of the long period of warring. Konoha had always boasted quality over quantity in terms of their ninja forces, but currently only he himself and Jiraya were anyone worthy of acting as deterrents against aggression. Now he was past his prime, and as for Jiraya even though he was arguably the strongest of the sannin he was the least notorious of them with one being a legendary medic whose effort saved uncountable lives and the other being the worst criminal to come out of Konoha apart from Itachi Uchiha, his actions so heinous regular ninjas would be simply petrified at the thought of facing him.

The current Konoha was rife with problems; the internal situation of Konoha was worsening day by day. The Hyuga and the Uchiha incident was a great blow to the village and he felt very uneasy about them, on one hand the Hyuga incident was a political nightmare. An ambassador that was chosen by a village to represent them was given authority by the daimyo of the land itself and thus every one of their move was watched very carefully, him being able to slip past the ANBU watchers and then the Hyuga guards themselves was highly suspect; not to mention he had met almost no resistance against the patrolling ninja. As if he was aware about the routes that the patrol took, and the one person to confront him happened to be the head of the Hyuga clan, owner of an unmarked byakugan who had a twin brother that could step in when Kumo demanded the head of the perpetrator, who- according to them had murdered their loyal ninja unjustly. It reeked of a setup, and he had a suspicion it was Danzo who had a hand in this; clan laws were one of the thing he as a Hokage had no say over and this incident was a masterful way of scoring a hit against him. He had to take the blame against the incident costing some of the Hyuga trust. Then there was the incident with the Uchiha, which cost him further distrust amongst the people, for one of his ANBU to commit such a horrible atrocity made them question his judgement; at least this time he had nailed Danzo with the offence, though not publically, and used his unsanctioned move to strip Root as a legal organization and make him step down from his position in the council.

But it was the situation about the future that was worrying him; he wasn’t as liked as a Hokage before Minato had stepped in; after these incidents and his stance against any mistreatment of Naruto, and the people who were misinformed or ignorant were wary of his policies, which sadly were a large portion of the village. He was desperately trying to find a successor for the Hokage position, but no one seemed suitable enough. Konoha had the strongest ninja in the elemental nations in every generation that were capable of turning the tides of war, that was why they never had to deploy their jinchuriki for the war effort something that lead to the false assumption amongst the populace that the current one was the first vassal to ever exist in their village.

His students were too old and even if they were to accept the position, which seemed unlikely, they would not be in the position for too long, and anyone younger than them were not strong enough; Asuma wasn’t strong enough, Gai didn’t exactly command respect from those who didn’t know him personally and no one in his ANBU had feats capable of inspiring awe in the masses. He had held great hopes for Kakashi years ago but it had been another disappointment. The sharingan he received from his friend had crippled his potential; before it he was developing similar to his sensei and father. Minato and Sakumo were some of the greatest shinobi Konoha had ever produced; both s-class ninjas, without a bloodline limit, possessed everything required to be a Hokage; power, leadership, charisma and the will of fire. It didn’t seem like Kakashi would be able to gain the strength needed to be a kage level ninja, he was too dependent on his sharingan something that was not compatible with his body; at first glance he appeared to be the perfect shinobi, an elite jonin, but Kakashi was as sentimental as they come, not necessarily a bad thing, but in his guilt and sentiment he lost sight of his strengths focusing mainly on mastering the sharingan. He had even stopped practicing kenjutsu after the White Light Chakra Sabre broke. Sakumo Hatake was strong not because of his sabre, he was strong because he was a master swordsman. The blade only enhanced what he already was capable of; akin to how the famous general from Land of Iron- Mifune, a master swordsman, had fought Hanzo of the salamander with an ordinary katana and lived to tell the tale.

He was getting increasingly worried about the future of the village. That is why he had called Jiraya back to make some preparations; he could already feel his presence closing by the window.

“How have you been, sensei?” Jiraya said from his position from the window.

“Welcome back Jiraya-kun. Things could be better.” He said filling his pipe with some tobacco. “Anything important?”

“There is a mercenary group of missing-nins that’s been taking high level missions lately. Mainly from Iwa and other small villages. Suna is struggling more so than ever it seems. Communication with Kiri is still cut off and Ame has closed its borders. There’s a new hidden village that’s suddenly cropped up somewhere in sound they might be encroaching on our land; more missing persons report have started coming up near our borders. Everything else is the same with some minor details. I’ll inform you if there are any major changes.” Jiraya summed up the latest information he deemed more concerning. The other minor stuff he would send to the Hokage in detail later on.

“Do you have any news on Tsunade?”

“Last I heard of her from my informant she was seen in Iron country. She’s mainly touring through fire country and some minor villages.”

“Only the two of you are suitable for the Hokage position. We have to start thinking about calling her back; unless you want to make it easier for me and accept the position now.” He asked chuckling slightly.

“Not happening, old man.” He said immediately before sitting on the chair in front of the hokage’s desk. “Can’t find anyone amongst the active jonin?”

“No one strong or notorious enough; if there are no breakthroughs in their strength I believe we’ll have to bank on the younger generation.”

Jiraya nodded absentmindedly, “Calling Tsunade back without taking any harsh measures would be difficult.”

The Hokage nodded taking a long drag from his pipe “If the circumstances were not so dire I wouldn’t want her to get back here anyway; she deserves to be happy even if it is by wandering the nations.” Hiruzen Sarutobi was genuine in his thought about this matter; the life of a medic-nin was tough. They saw the most death; even more so than his ANBU and on top that losing her loved ones in the way she did would be tough on anyone. “Naruto has been asking about her.”

“He asked you?” Jiraya asked puzzled; that was unusual, as far as he knew Naruto was not overly familiar with the hokage anymore, and tended to avoid anything personal to do with the man. And that had come to him as a huge surprise, as they had been rather close when Naruto was still a child.

Hiruzen shook his head sadly, “No, and nothing specific too; just general information one might ask about a legendary ninja.”

Now Jiraya was confused, “So? What does that have anything to do with Tsunade; many people idolise her.” And that was true; she was the most famous kunoichi to exist, and an inspiration to every woman aspiring to be one. Strong and beautiful, she had everything- or so they thought.

“Do you know of how Naruto became a chunin?” Hiruzen asked remembering the meeting that took place in the same room they were inhibiting, where they had to deliberate on the decision regarding his promotion.

* * *

Hiruzen was deep in discussion with his advisors Homura and Koharu, the Konoha council; the subject being Naruto Uzumaki’s chunin promotion.

“He shows enough skill in ninjutsu and taijutsu; has adequate skills in detecting genjutsu some proficiency with water manipulation, but what is impressive is that he shows near mastery in kenjutsu and fuinjutsu. He also shows good leadership skills and tactical thinking from the missions we sent him for evaluation.” He said looking through the various reports, confirmed kills and recommendations from superior officers the boy went on missions with.

“Indeed, he is strong enough to be a chunin. Maybe, a bit too strong.” Homura said, though Hiruzen could clearly hear the accusation in his voice, it was something even he was wary of; not that Naruto was strong, no, that was perfectly fine; it was even good that he was showing incredible growth and was already being considered for a promotion eight months out of the academy at an age of 11, nearing 12. It didn’t seem too impressive in comparison to the renowned prodigies who had graduated within a few months after entering the academy, and had made chunin by the age of 6 and 10 like Kakashi and Itachi respectively, but they were fringe cases and product of their time and environment. There was now a requirement for the students to attend a minimum of 4 years at the academy and only under special cases were they allowed to enter an year or two early. Naruto graduated from the academy as rookie of the year; that wasn’t too surprising every year a new prodigy was somehow produced by the academy, if the teachers were to be believed, like the new Hyuga prodigy, who was on his way to become the rookie this year; and Sasuke Uchiha- the last of his clan already being hailed as a prodigy in the second year of his schooling. From Naruto’s academy records it looked like he would have lost the title to Neji if they were in the same year; which would have been the case had Naruto not entered the academy a year early.

No, what was impressive were the skills he had seemingly developed in eight months after his graduation. Skills that his jonin-sensei was not proficient in; skills the Uzumaki were known for, absurd level of water manipulation, kenjutsu and sealing. He believed Naruto had learned these skills in the Uzumaki shrine behind the Senju compound but they could never know for sure. Unless Naruto himself came forward to tell them about it. Clan secrets were something that even he himself, as the hokage, was not privy of; unless not one member of the clan was living in the village. They could make the claim that these secrets somehow put the village’s or other clan’s security at risk allowing them to look into it, but that would be highly difficult to achieve unless they make the ludicrous claim that these techniques were created by Naruto himself and quite recently, and had not existed for a long time beforehand.

“There is no such thing as too strong Homura, the boy is loyal and has quite close connections to two families living in Konoha, a civilian and a shinobi one, one of which is a family whose clan head is an expert in information gathering and psychology. Inoichi assured us that he is stable, a bit bitter maybe, but nothing too serious that would call in question his loyalty.” Hiruzen looked through the psych evaluations Inoichi provided, “What’s his sensei’s opinion of him.”

“Shikaku says that he is a very competent shinobi, but believes all the growth we are seeing is not recent; some of it he already might have accomplished when he was in the academy.” Koharu said looking through the reports.

“Makes sense, they don’t evaluate weapon proficiencies apart from shurikenjutsu and there is no one available to teach children sealing or appraise a student’s skill level on rare subjects.” he pulsed his chakra in small bursts; the action alerting the ANBU stationed to allow his secretary to enter. “Let’s call him in and see what he has to say for himself.” He signalled his secretary to send for Naruto.

“Shikaku also states in his report that the boy should be promoted so he could take higher levelled missions or more specialised ones. He also stated that the genin team won’t survive any promotion, they work well enough but there is no real need to keep them together; it might even be detrimental to their mission success when they go on tougher ones. The other two members of the team are not that combat oriented and would be more suited for patrol or guard duties and would take a lot more time to be ready for promotions, and should be reassigned.” Koharu said as she continued reading through the report.

“It will be a good idea to promote him now rather than wait for Konoha to host the exams again in the rotation; we simply cannot send someone who is distinctly an Uzumaki to other territories when they have knowledge of his schedules and routes. Not even considering the fact that the other nations might suspect his status as a jinchuriki.” Hiruzen was in no way under the delusion that the other nations were not somewhat aware of Naruto’s status as a jinchuriki considering the security leak that had occurred a day after his birth.

“Do you believe he knows about the Kyuubi? From what I understand you haven’t told him about it.” Homura said to Hiruzen again with a hint of accusation.

“There was no need to; it wouldn’t have done him any good.” Hiruzen stated firmly.

“He could have been trained to harness its power.” Koharu said.

“He needs to be kept in control.” Homura interjected. He and Koharu had always advocated letting Danzo train the boy.

“The only thing keeping the Kyuubi in check is the Jinchuriki’s willpower, and to not let it loose he would need sound judgement and connections to the village. I don’t want Naruto to become someone who wouldn’t consider the consequences of using the Kyuubi because Danzo doesn’t understand what is good for the village in the long run. He has already weakened the village by getting a large number of strong shinobi and kunoichi massacred because he jumped the gun, and now we are short on man power; something that would take us decades to recover from, if we could ever recover from it all because of your small mindedness.” Hiruzen said harshly, his killing intent leaking through. His anger barely restrained, making the tables and chairs clatter. The man, even though old, was the Hokage and even his old teammates felt small at this moment realising that they had let themselves grow weaker with time.

“We had no choice. The coup was going to break out, and innocent life would have been lost.” Homura said firmly though the palpable anger of the Hokage was making him sweat profusely.

“Innocent life was lost.” Hiruzen stated somewhat bitterly. Losing people he had vowed to care for, so carelessly, was one of the burdens he would have to carry to his grave. “The civilians who had no idea of the coup, and the children who did not even know of any conflict. For a man who believed in brainwashing and has an uncompromising belief in his ability to create emotionless ninjas he sure was quick to reach the conclusion that the children were going to rebel when they grow up.” Hiruzen was fed up with these people and their support of his old friend; he now truly believed that his teammates never found their place in a peaceful Konoha, and were very much set in their old ways; somehow believing that any form of compromise for a more peaceful resolve was a soft-hearted response and a fool’s approach. But even then he could not place the blame on a single party. It was never that easy.

“But you must still consider that a jinchuriki is essential firepower and a great deterrent against threat.” Koharu calmly stated, trying to move the conversation back to the topic at hand. “Konoha may not have required a jinchuriki before to fight for us, but you are getting old, and besides Jiraya we do not have someone strong enough to contend against the likes of Killer B who had perfect control of his biju, and even those who can only just tap into the power of their beasts would give us trouble.”

“And how do you propose we go on about teaching Naruto to control the Kyuubi. Before Killer B and Yagura we didn’t know it was even possible to use the power of the biju to that extent, and we have no idea how they achieved it. If something were to go wrong we might lose Naruto, and might not find anyone strong enough to be Kyuubi’s new vassal. Even if by some miracle we find a suitable candidate then besides me and Jiraya no one would be able to reseal the Kyuubi, and the seal we might use may not be as strong as Minato’s.” Hiruzen was very wary of tempering with the seal on Naruto as it was very complex, and without Minato’s notes on it tempering with it might weaken it considerably.

“He should be aware of it if you are thinking of promoting him.” Homura insisted. As they were deliberating about this issue they heard a knock, and Naruto entered making his way to the centre of the room and stood in attention, awaiting orders.

“We were reviewing your application for the chunin position genin Uzumaki and would like to hear your reasoning on why you think you deserve a field promotion.” Hiruzen addressed giving the boy the chance to make his point without the elders interfering.

“I believe I’m strong enough to become a chunin and have achieved substantial skill in the techniques of my clan. I prefer kenjutsu, sealing and ninjutsu and would like to specialise more in these fields, and I believe if I get more experience as a chunin I might be able to join a specialised branch in Konoha’s task force in the future serving the village more effectively.” Naruto said. His words clearly telling them, that at least some thought was put into making his request.

“Which branch are you considering that you might want to work towards?” Koharu asked trying to understand the boy’s aspirations, it was still too early for him to join any of the Konoha’s departments, but it was nice knowing what ones motivations were.

“Something in target capture or barrier squads, as my strength lies in offensive and sealing techniques.” Hiruzen could tell the boy was trying to be as professional as he could, sadly, something he was sure his former teammates greatly appreciated.

* * *

Hiruzen looked at Jiraya, “We promoted him, and given his new clearance and skill level I thought it would be prudent to tell him about the Kyuubi. I had expected it somewhat considering his knowledge of sealing that he knew about it already, and after that meeting I have no doubt; he accepted this information calmly and didn’t ask even a simple question of how or why. Three days later every ninja capable of basic chakra sensing felt a malevolent chakra spike for a brief moment. We had asked him about it immediately and were given the answer that he had accessed the Kyuubi’s chakra and was developing a technique for using it effectively. I suspect he might have been waiting for us to officially tell him about it so he could start using the Kyuubi’s chakra without anyone asking unsavoury questions.

” Jiraya put aside his thoughts on how this all relates to Tsunade for a minute and asked urgently, “He could access the Kyuubi’s chakra already? On his own?”

“He can. I had to reassure some people that the seal, like any other Jinchuriki’s, was designed to let him access the Kyuubi’s chakra and that the Kyuubi wasn’t breaking out.” Jiraya scoffed.

“These people don’t give Minato enough credit.”

“Still, you told me that the seal was different from Kushina’s; that it would weaken over time?”

“I don’t know why Minato designed the seal the way he did; my best guess- he wanted Naruto to use the Kyuubi’s chakra.’

“Then do you believe the seal has weakened enough to be noticeable?”

“I don’t think so; to weaken it considerably in such a short amount of time it would require Naruto to call upon almost all of its chakra; about seven tails worth or more. It should still be fine.” Jiraya answered. It would seem that Naruto was quite skilled in sealing, if sensei was worried about him noticing the condition of the seal. “I could check it if you want.”

“I would be careful if I were you; if Naruto knows about your relation to him he would likely not associate with you of his own free will.” “Do you think he already knows?”

“I’m not sure. You know how I used to be close to Naruto when he was little; it started small at first but after sometime Naruto closed himself from me. At first I thought it was because he blamed me for his childhood, which while regrettable would be understandable, but according to Kakashi- Naruto avoids him as well but doesn’t seem to have a problem with Gai or Asuma. It could be a coincidence but Kakashi was Minato’s student.”

“So you are saying that he might know about his parents?”

“His behaviour would make a lot of sense if he knew.”

“A security leak? Or do you believe he was told by someone.”

“Not many know about it. It could be Danzo but Naruto is too high-profile for him to turn into one of his drones without my permission; he could still have tried to use the information to gain his trust I suppose. It’s hard to tell without being too intrusive.”

“So you are telling me that our jinchuriki could be loyal to someone else other than his Hokage.”

“He already isn’t loyal to me than the bare minimum, and apart from the few he doesn’t have too many connections to the village. That is why I believe it’s necessary to bring back Tsunade.”

“I still don’t understand what this has to with Tsunade.”

“Lady Mito, Tsunade’s grandmother, was Kushina’s grandaunt. She was the older sister of Kushina’s grandfather and Kushina’s only family in Konoha; they were very close. Tsunade and Naruto even though distantly, are related. Naruto might know of this that’s why he might be asking around about her, the only member of his family that is still living.”

“It could work, but then he should be asking about me too, right? If you believe he knows about his parents.”

“He might only know about you being Minato’s master and not about you being his godfather. Or he might think that you knew about him and still chose not to be there for him.”

“But I had no choice in that matter.” Jiraya exclaimed angrily.

“You don’t have to explain it to me Jiraya. You have to believe it yourself, and come to terms with it.” Hiruzen stated calmly. Even after all these years he still felt like he had lots to teach his students, but maybe that was the how it was meant to be.

Jiraya sat there silently, and tried to rationalize the choice he had made all those years ago to himself. It could have been dangerous to take Naruto with him, but maybe he could have taken him to Mount Myoboku if things got hairy? That didn’t feel like a good place to raise a child. No he couldn’t have taken Naruto with himself. Maybe he could have visited him from time to time but more often than not he was deep undercover, this was the second time he was able to come to Konoha after the Kyuubi attacked; between gathering information to stave off any aggression from the rival villages, and perusing Orochimaru he was always on the move. He could have written letters but what could he have said? He was sure Naruto not knowing about him until he was older to understand his absence was the better choice. He was sure of it. But he still felt he had done something wrong, that he could have done more.

“Maybe he might understand if I talk to him.” He said to his sensei.

“He might understand, but even then he might not forgive you. You have to understand Jiraya that he might not need you in the life he has built for himself.”

“How strong is he now?” Jiraya asked. That was a bitter pill to swallow. Minato had intrusted him with the position of godfather but Konoha needed him more. He was sure Minato would understand his choices.

“He recently put an application to be tested for the position of special jonin. It’s scheduled to happen in the coming months. This might give us a more accurate measure of his strength.” Hiruzen said smiling slightly the boy was doing quite good for himself. He had even put in an interesting proposal to open a business too. He believed that is why he put in an application for special-jonin and didn’t work directly for the jonin position.

“The Kyuubi?”

“He recently submitted a report of creating a new technique to use its chakra by using some seals.”

“He is tempering with the seal.” Jiraya asked hastily, some worry creeping into his voice.

“Not quite, it’s an Uzumaki technique of storing chakra, a battery of sorts.” Hiruzen said calmly; he had been keeping track of the seal, at least to the best of his capability.

“We should still look into it more closely.”

“We could, but it comes under a grey area of using clan techniques and using biju chakra. We would have to force the issue. It would be better to just insure that he has not messed with the seal, with your notes on Naruto’s seal, along with the original Uzumaki one, I could just easily see if there are any changes made to it.” Hiruzen suggested.

“That could work.” Jiraya said after thinking about the matter, generally even among non-clan ninjas, information about their techniques was not asked in detail. “If he gets the promotion we might be able to assign him a mission to help me track down Tsunade. It could help me figure out more about him, and he won’t be too resentful seeing that he himself wants to find her.”

“We’ll just have to wait and see.” Hiruzen said before he turned towards the paperwork on his desk; the top report detailing the lists of academy students going to take the exams the following month. It was an interesting year as the class contained almost all the heirs and heiress to the major clans of Konoha, a very promising bunch. It was one piece of document he didn’t mind reading carefully.

* * *

Ino Yamanaka was ready to graduate; having to wake up so early in the morning always put her in a grumpy mood. It was only a week to the graduation date she reminded herself; then she would be a badass Kunoichi who wouldn’t need to wake up so damn early. She was kind of bummed out that her father wasn't going to be there to celebrate her graduation, he was called into a mission that’s why if she passed, which she had no doubt about, they would be celebrating the occasion a bit later with the Nara and the Akimichi family. The old Ino-shika-cho team was very famous for their teamwork, and even after all these years they sometimes still worked together. She was sceptical about Shikamaru passing but she hoped for the best, for his sake or his mother would surely be on a warpath. She did her morning routine, tied her hair into a short ponytail reaching about her shoulder, maybe she should grow it out like all the other girls in her class, and wore her favourite purple battle dress.

She made her way to the kitchen for some breakfast and upon entering she was surprised at first. The emotion was quickly followed by elation then instantly her mood soured. The source of her sudden mood change was sitting at the dining table stuffing his face with buttered toast like he hadn’t done anything wrong. There on the chair sat Naruto Uzumaki, her childhood friend wearing his regular outfit consisting of black shinobi pants, a dark orange haori with designs of black waves going through it and the symbol of his clan printed on his back, over a black t-shirt and a pair of black shinobi sandals. His haori was usually tied to his waist by his forehead protector but not today apparently; for the first time in years he was wearing his forehead protector on his… well forehead which was highly suspect, but she wasn’t going to ask him about it. No, for her sanity’s sake she was going to ignore the idiot today.

The aforementioned idiot looked up, grabbed another toast and said “Made it out of the bed sheets Ino, Yume-san just went out, but there’s some breakfast out for you.”

She, as promised, summarily ignored him and sat down trying to quash her anger, rather vainly, and started buttering her own toast and laying them on her plate and peeling some fruits, she really didn’t have the stomach for eating something heavy in the morning. She looked to her plate to grab a toast only to find the small pile she had created had somehow diminished considerably, suspecting the only person beside her she looked towards him, and sure enough he was eating another toast and somehow had acquired a piece of the apple she had just peeled, and she saw red. The culmination of these events is what Ino’s mother Yume Yamanaka had just walked in on. Her young daughter biting into Naruto’s arm, and him trying to shake her off; all the while yelping in pain.

“INO, what are you doing to Naruto-kun?” She said sternly her tone instantly making Ino let go. She turned towards Naruto and asked gently, “Are you ok, dear. You aren’t hurt are you?”

“No, I’m fine Yume-san; you shouldn’t be upset with Ino it was my fault I took a slice of her apple.” Naruto said trying hard to show shame and regret.

Looking at Naruto, who at the moment looked like the perfect picture of self-pity, she turned towards her daughter, and sent a glare. Her message clear. Apologise now. But Ino stared at her firmly not budging from her stance. She sighed, usually Ino would have backed down and done as she was asked, but today it seemed she was determined to be angry at the boy. She honestly couldn’t say that she didn’t understand Ino’s anger; Naruto had disappeared for more than a month now, without even telling them anything about it, and they had been very worried about his safety. She herself had scolded him this morning about worrying them needlessly, but ultimately her relief over his well-being had won out against her anger and she had already forgiven him for it. Ino on the other hand was far more stubborn, and knowing her, Naruto would have to jump through some hoops to get her to forgive him. She could already see Ino was starting to get irritated as Naruto tried to make small talk with her.

Ino was doing her best not to explode at the moment, trying very hard not to lash out at the redhead while in front of her mother. She knew her mother had a soft spot for Naruto and would not take it well if she gave him a well-deserved whack for being a bastard. How dare he make Ino Yamanaka worry about him. She was too angry at the moment to care about breakfast, and even though she knew she would regret it later when she would be hungry at the academy, stood up and left her house and made her way towards the academy making sure to take the busiest street through the village; she knew that Naruto would have accompanied her to the academy otherwise. If she wasn’t upset with him she would have gladly allowed him to escort her. It had taken a lot of her patience and charm to teach him to be a gentleman if you asked her; on the other hand if you asked Naruto he would tell you that Ino was very bossy and would nag him endlessly about it afterwards if he refused, so he had given up on it.

She made it to the class earlier than she usually did, so she was spoilt for choice on where to sit down. Usually she would sit with her best friend, Sakura, at the front of the class which she wasn’t generally too happy about, Iruka-sensei had the tendency to drone on and on sometimes, and being that their sensei was a ninja it made it harder for her to pass secret notes to Sakura under his watch. So today it looked like she would be the one to choose where to sit down; looking around she could see that Shikamaru and Choji had already arrived and were already sitting in the back, if she were to guess Shikamaru’s mother had kicked him out of the house so he came in early to catch some sleep. She wouldn’t choose sit close to them though, imagine sitting through a boring lecture with someone sleeping right next to you; she was getting drowsy just by thinking about it. There were seats in the middle and she could see two other boys sitting close to them, Kiba and Sasuke, and she ignored either of those choices, for the reasons that Kiba was too obnoxious and she wasn’t in a good enough mood to deal with him today, and sitting beside Sasuke would not be good idea. Sakura had a huge crush on him, and being the shy girl she was would just swoon over him without doing anything then get depressed over the whole ordeal. She had put a lot of effort in making Sakura get out of her shell these past few years, and wasn’t going to let some boy make her feel insecure again. Honestly, she could see the appeal in Sasuke, he was very cute, but he also felt too closed off to her, maybe if they got to know him more, he would open up to them but the boy didn’t seem interested in talking to anyone at all. As she made her way to some empty seats, thankfully far away from Sasuke’s position. This way she wouldn’t have to deal with that bitch Ami and her clique of bullies, as they would surely swarm to his position like locusts; maybe arriving early would pay off and the day would pass quickly.

It did not; Iruka-sensei had decided to prepare a class test for them to see if they were prepared to take the exam at the end of the week. While useful, she learned she had trouble breaking some ciphers and would have to revise the basic codes taught to them, it was tedious and the day was feeling far too long already.

After the test, they made their way out of the building to get some lunch. Sakura was yammering about the test and what not. She was mostly tuning her out. It wasn’t that she was uninterested in any of it, one the contrary Sakura and her were competing for the title of kunoichi of the year. It was just that she was very hungry, her dinner had been rather light too not to mention her lack of breakfast, and she was contemplating going out to the stores near the academy to buy something to eat even though she was on a tight budget. The shopping spree she had gone on this month might not have been such a good idea. Another reason she wanted to graduate quickly so she could earn lots of money by going on missions. She was still agonising on her decision while walking when she felt someone appear in her front of her with a flicker and she frowned. Sakura had stopped talking seeing the boy standing in front of them smiling brightly, and looked towards Ino; who simply walked past him.

Naruto could feel the anger rolling off of Ino and the confusion coming from the other girl by her side. She had a curious shade of pink hair. It looked awesome in his opinion it was just a lighter shade of red after all. Both of their emotions were understandable, so he simply said to them “I brought you lunch Ino.” Well more like he had asked Yume-san to pack some food for Ino and after taking care of some business he had come to deliver it to her and start making amends. It had been his fault for disappearing, but in his defence he had made a breakthrough in his technique and the application of the seals required for it needed extensive preparations. Then his approval for a commercial permit had also come through, and he had to secure the channels for material supply. That had taken him a whole lot of effort.

Seeing that Ino only stopped for a second and then continued walking on he played his ace, “You don’t want it? Well I guess I’ll go then. I had some pretty big news, two of them in fact, and you were going to be the first one to know about it too.” He sighed somewhat dramatically and slowly turned to walk away.

“Hmph.” That was all he heard before Ino walked up to him, holding Sakura by her wrist, snatched the lunch box from his hand and stood in front of him. She raised her delicately manicured eyebrow when she saw him just standing there. Naruto shook his head fondly before placing a hand on both of their shoulders and flickered them to a more secluded area; away from the academy watchers to a training ground near the academy one of the few that was open to the students. It was one of the specifically designed ones, with a running course, targets for practice, trees and even a small pond.

He looked towards the girls as Ino made her way towards a particularly large tree and found a soft spot underneath it to sit down. Sakura trailed behind her somewhat hesitantly and opened her own lunch-box. He could feel that she was wary of him, and he had to supress the anger he could feel bubbling inside him; something he had to train in extensively over the years otherwise he would have be without company. The thought of it was something he could always feel looming in the back of his head. He opened his senses, and looked at her closely and could see truthfully the girl was just shy of strangers and it wasn’t because of him in particular that she was uneasy. He smiled at the thought of being nobody in particular, and he already made up his mind to see if he could befriend her.

“Hello, I’m Naruto Uzumaki, Ino’s friend.” He said cheerily extending his hand.

“Sakura Haruno.” She said somewhat shyly as she shook his hand. “Ino told me about you.”

“Really now.” Naruto said looking towards Ino. “Good things I hope.” He said in a teasing voice.

“She told me you graduated two years ago, and that you are a chunin.” Sakura said hastily, she could tell Ino was getting angry, and she wasn’t going to tell him about all she had been told. It was between her and Ino.

“Yup, I joined the academy a year early, and as for being a chunin if all goes well I won’t be one for long.” He said cryptically, and knowing Ino he had dangled the perfect bait, sure enough-

“What does that mean?” Ino said; talking for the first time today. Something that had been seriously worrying Sakura for a while. Her curiosity getting the better of her anger. “I put in a request for promotion to special-jonin. It was approved, and if all goes well I’ll be promoted.” He told her cheerily.

“What do you have to do to get promoted.” She knew some of the details that went towards getting a promotion but nothing too major. Naruto had told her there were two main ways to get promoted to chunin when not in a time of war. First, through some kind of exam, she had attended one of the finals as a spectator with her dad a few years back, and second through getting approved by the council. Naruto didn’t tell her how he had managed to get his promotion through the second method, telling her she didn’t have the clearance for it. “You don’t have the clearance.” Uuh how she hated those words; more so because Naruto always looked really smug about it. As for being a special-jonin they only learned a little about the position in the academy.

“What every special-jonin has to do. Show jonin proficiency in certain skills and somewhat higher proficiency than a chunin in the other basic ones.” He answered honestly. The information could be easily found in the library and wasn’t restricted to civilians.

“How is that different from a Jonin.” This time it was Sakura who had asked after she swallowed the bite of food she had been eating between their conversations. He could feel the girl slowly beginning to ease up in his presence. “A jonin position requires a lot more field experience because they have the choice to take a genin team, and I don’t have to show jonin level skills in all the basic ninja fields only some that I specialise in to be considered for the promotion. Being a jonin does give slightly more authority in general situations though, but I’m not ready for the responsibility and time required for the position.” There were exceptions to this of course but they didn’t have to know about it yet.

“Is that why you disappeared.” Ino asked, truthfully she was somewhat hurt that he had disappeared without at least telling her something beforehand, and she hated it.

“It’s one of the reasons. I had to up my training and had to do a lot of preparation for a technique I had been preparing for a while. I barely slept for weeks. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you that I would be gone for a while.” And he was genuinely so, the Ichirakus and the Yamanakas were as close to him as family could be, but he hadn’t grown in the same environment that she did. While it was true that the Ichirakus were a civilian family they at least knew of his burden, and thus would understand his absence. The Yamanaka were a ninja family from a clan but Ino had a very sheltered upbringing for an heiress. She like most civilian children and even some children from families of ninjas did not know of the cruelty and hardship of the lifestyle she had chosen. His motivations were different from hers, but he knew as time goes on she would learn and grow up into someone genuinely strong. He could already see her potential to do something great. Ino didn’t answer him, but she didn’t try to block him out like she did this morning either. So, he said to her, “How about this, I’ll tell you about the other news. I can guarantee you will be excited about it, but you have to promise me you won’t be mad at me anymore.”

Ino stood up, her lunch already eaten and came to stand-up in front of him, looking intently into his eyes and said, “The news, and you will treat me to lunch for a month after I become a genin.”

“For a week, and when I’m not busy.” He countered.

“Fine. But you will help me with my training.”

“After you become a genin?”

“Yes.” She said.

“Deal.” Naruto said extending his hand out while sticking out his pinkie to make a promise.

“That’s so childish.” She said exasperatedly but still held out her pinkie to seal the deal.

“I don’t want to hear that coming from you. You’re still a brat until you make genin, don’t you know.”

“That’s not true. You just like saying that. I’m more mature than you.”

“You’re not.”

“I am.”

“Are not.”

“Am too.”

“Are not. You’re just a brat.”

“You’re the brat. I’m a woman.”

“Why can’t I see it?” Naruto said slowly looking up and down her frame.

Ino calmed down her anger and tried to use one of the things Naruto always lost to her in. She walked up close to him and draped her arms around him, and leaned in, “Want me to show you, Naru-kun.” She said breathily.

Naruto tried to calm down his flustered state, he reminded himself that he was an experienced shinobi and he had seen many beautiful kunoichi that were very gorgeous, his mind immediately conjuring the image of Kurenai-senpai, and compared to them, Ino, even though very pretty, was lacking in certain womanly charms. He calmly extracted himself from her grasp, “I would have loved to see you try, but we don’t have the time for it sadly.” He said slightly smirking; internally he was sweating bullets. Well that was the best he could do anyway; being a special-jonin he was somewhat versed in resisting kunoichi charm, but that didn’t mean he could charm them back. He had no one to teach him that. Maybe he should find someone though, or Ino might continue getting under his skin. There was no way he was going to lose to her!

They stood staring at each other trying to break the other mentally until they heard a slight rustling. They both looked towards were the sound came from and saw Sakura standing there blushing slightly, Ino spoke, her chance to try and make Naruto feel stupid stopped short, “So, what’s the other news, and be quick. Our break is going to end soon.” She hated being rushed when it comes to gossip but she didn’t want Iruka-sensei to get upset and go on a long winded speech about being a responsible kunoichi. Naruto internally felt relieved, he really didn’t want to continue playing this game with Ino when he was clearly at a disadvantage, “I found a property on lease. It’s a great place not to for away from the market but not too close that the others would complain about the noise either. I have already hired some workers to make the necessary adjustments. Within a month I’ll probably be open for business.”

“When are you going to take me to see the place?” Ino demanded quite excitedly. She had been hearing about him opening up his on shop for ages now.

“Whenever you are free.” He complied readily. This was one of his dreams coming true, and it made him happy that Ino looked as giddy as he felt.

“You are opening up your own business!” Sakura asked in wonder. Naruto was very young, only about a year older than her and Ino, and he was already able to open up his own shop. That was simply incredible.

“Yup, I’m a Weaponsmith.”

“But won’t you be too busy with your ninja career.” Sakura asked with slight concern in her voice.

“Not too much. I’ll be only providing high end weapons and custom jobs. The demand is low for them but they are quite pricey so they make decent profit, and I’ll still take on missions to make money. My clan, the Uzumaki, were famous for their swords, and now I can open my on shop to honour them.” Sakura could hear the pride in his voice. She hadn’t heard of an Uzumaki clan; they weren’t taught about them in the academy. She would have to go to the library to gather more information.

“You could come to visit my shop too, you know. Just ask Ino whenever you want too.” Naruto continued happily.

“I would like that.” Sakura complied. She really wanted to look at what kind of weapons Naruto could make. He seemed like an earnest guy, and apparently was quite strong. He was already being considered for a promotion after all. She had always thought Sasuke-kun was the strongest in their age group, but now she wasn’t quite sure. Coming from a clanless family was hard when her class and had at least one member from each one, and knowing that Sasuke-kun was from the Uchiha clan, one of the strongest clan of Konoha, she thought no one would be able to compete with him. It certainly seemed so; no one in their class was close to him in skill level. Even without his sharingan, she had researched about it in her spare time, he was able to always win every bout.

It was at this moment that Ino looked towards the sky and noted the position of the sun and guessed, quite accurately in fact, that their lunch break was coming to an end. It was one of the ways to tell time they had learned at the academy in their first year. She said to Naruto, “Are you coming over for dinner today?”

“Probably not. I’ll have to go to Ichiraku to tell them I’m back.” He would have to apologise to them too for his disappearing act, “I’ll probably come by tomorrow though.”

“Ok, then I’ll tell you tomorrow when we can visit your shop.” Ino said, then turned towards Sakura, “Let’s go lunch is almost over.”

“Want me to take you back?” Naruto asked. He didn’t want them to be late because of him even if the training ground they were in was fairly close to the academy.

“No need. You can go now.” Ino said rather rudely. All that was missing was a shooing motion in Naruto’s opinion. He stuck his tongue out at her and disappeared with a puff of smoke.

Ino was already used to his antics and would have rewarded him with a similar gesture of her own on instinct had he been a second late, and thus wasn’t even a bit bothered by it. Ino and Sakura packed their lunch boxes and made their way towards the academy.

“Ino-pig.” It was something she only allowed Sakura to call her, and in return she called her Forehead-girl. There was no malice behind it. They had started doing this years ago so that the next time Ami and her gang tried to make fun of them it wouldn’t work and then it just stuck. “You and Naruto are just friends.” Sakura asked somewhat probingly. She had always wondered why Ino didn’t pursue Sasuke-kun like every girl in their class, maybe Naruto was the reason.

“What else would he be?” Ino asked with genuine confusion, but then her expression changed to that of understanding, “I know what you are thinking- why would someone like me be friends with someone as childish and insufferable like him, but I have known him for a long time and he isn’t that bad you know.” Ino said, like she was apologetic about the meeting.

Sakura wasn’t thinking that at all. Naruto didn’t seem all that insufferable on the contrary he was very pleasant to talk too, very easy-going in fact. As for being childish Ino was in no position to call him that. Maybe she was looking into it too much and they were just friends because sometimes she and Ino also acted like that towards each other.

They entered the academy with some time to spare and made it into their class. The end of the week couldn’t come fast enough for both of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing is hard when you have can only write about a sentence or two before hitting a wall. The content rereading and editing is a pain in the ass.
> 
> Anyway enough of my whining thank you for reading my fic, any feed back is appreciated.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a dual release please read the chapter notes at the end of the next one for some more info about the series.

Naruto flickered just outside of the training ground, leaving behind Ino and her friend Sakura. Now that he was free he wondered what to do apart from going to Ichiraku in the evening; he had nothing too important do at the moment. He had about six hours to kill.

His options were restricted because while he couldn’t feel them as strongly as most people he knew he was being kept under surveillance. By whom he wasn’t quite sure. But their presence felt eerily similar to his old team-mate, Yoji Aburame. Yoji wasn’t strong or that skilled apart from his clan abilities, unremarkable in many ways but Naruto could feel that something was wrong with him. Even for an Aburame his emotions were far too subdued though if he hadn’t felt something similar from several other people in the village he would have dismissed it.

Sadly Naruto didn’t have enough skills in stealth and infiltration to even think about accessing his file- he was too high-profiled inside the village for those skills to even matter. Those files were off-limits to people below the rank of Jonin. But, it wasn’t going be a problem for long; after his promotion he would be able to look into it. Until then he had to make it seem like he was unaware of his watchers’ eyes; they were masking their chakra very skillfully and even with something like the byakugan their presence would not appear as more than that of a civilian unless someone decided to look very closely, and why would anyone do that inside their own village. Still it was beginning to annoy him, as he couldn’t do a lot of stuff that was supposed to be secret. And until he was sure that it wasn’t the hokage who had given the orders to watch over him he couldn’t do anything to them other than hold out on as much information about himself as possible.

He decided on the bar; the most famous one in Konoha, at least amongst the shinobi as it only served those who were in active duty. Being among high level shinobi would be a great deterrent to anyone watching him, and the bar was one of the places where it was hard to spy on anyone. It was made sure of it by the stationed anbu who guarded the establishment so that no foreign ninja or civilian could gain access to some sensitive information because someone was drunk enough to spill their guts.

He made his way to the bar by ducking through less populated streets avoiding the more travelled ones. Rather than seeming to avoid the crowds, Naruto preferred to believe he was only taking a more scenic route, even though all the scenery around Konoha was the same, of trees and forests the occasional glimpse of a lake or river made him happy. Arriving at the front of the bar Naruto extended his sense to find out if the people he was looking for were there or not, he couldn’t find Izumo or Kotetsu, fun people, both of them he had spent time with while he was on gate guard duty. But he did feel some others he knew who would appreciate his company; it was unusual for all of them to be free at the same time and not be on a mission.

He was going to make his way inside until he felt a sense of suffocating guilt overwhelm him and he quickly detached his own self from that crushing emotion; he cursed his own stupidity to overlook the possibility that Kakashi wouldn’t be there as well. He should have been more cautious. Now, he had to deliberate if he should go in or not, being in proximity to Kakashi was an ordeal, not to mention that whenever Kakashi saw him his feelings would grow more intense and frankly he was tired of it. Why couldn’t Kakashi just forget he existed? Naruto didn’t need him and whatever guilt Kakashi felt towards him or his situation Naruto didn’t want to be a part of it. This was one of the reasons Naruto had yet to visit his mother’s grave, his father’s too he supposed. Kakashi was always hounding the place. Well the other reason was far more important; he didn’t want anyone else to know that he was aware of his lineage, but sometimes he could feel himself giving it to the temptation of it, to go and pay his respect. Kakashi’s presence always deterred him. Should he be grateful to Kakashi or not; he couldn’t make up his mind on that matter. He supposed his life was complicated like that.

Naruto was struggling with the decision but decide to go in anyway. He didn’t know how long he could avoid being in Kakashi’s presence with his upcoming promotion; it would be hard to, and he had run away from this problem for long enough. He made his way directly towards his destination, and as expected like he had known all along his presence inside the building produced an unnoticeable shift in the atmosphere, if he didn’t have the ability to sense emotions, negative emotions he reminded himself bitterly, he wouldn’t have noticed. Some of the many jovial patrons of the bar had a sudden undertone of mistrust and wariness mix amongst their drunken haziness.

He made his way towards the table that had six people already occupying it; Guy, Asuma, Kurenai, Genma, Raido and lastly Kakashi. Pulling up a chair from a nearby table he greeted them, “How’s everyone doing?”

“I’m doing absolutely fine this youthful morning Naruto-kun.” Guy said boisterously though that was nothing unusual for him.

Naruto liked Guy; there wasn’t an ounce of deception inside of him. Often enough Naruto would have to feel people’s disgust towards him, disguised deep within a cheerful veneer, but thankfully not with Guy. Even though he couldn’t sense the positive feelings of people, he knew Guy considered him to be a fellow shinobi, if not, dare he say the word, friend. Some might consider it unbecoming of a shinobi to be read so easily, but the same people would not be willing to say that in front of the man that was Might Guy. He had earned the right to be eccentric in Naruto’s opinion. He was one of the few Naruto knew he had very little chance to win against.

“I’m doing fine as well.” It was Kurenai who had replied to his question this time, smiling gently towards him. Naruto blushed slightly; he still sometimes got caught off-guard by Kurenai-senpai. Most times it would seem that she was uncaring towards others because of her demeanor, but Naruto had found that to not be true by going on various missions with her.

Seeing his reaction Asuma chuckled to which Naruto replied to him in a whisper while lacing his voice with chakra to dampen the sound, a simple trick to prevent people from listening in “If only I was slightly older Asuma you wouldn’t stand a chance. Count yourself lucky.” He knew Asuma understood what he meant by that statement.

Asuma the cool bastard he was, only chuckled more heartily. And to Naruto Asuma was cool, well cooler than his peers anyway. Naruto knew he couldn’t take on smoking; he had promised baachan and had read through his mother’s diary enough times to know she would pummel him to the ground if he even entertained the idea of it.

The others also gave similar responses to Guy’s and Kurenai’s. Naruto nodding to their response signaled the bartender to provide him with lemonade. He had leeway to drink alcohol at least, but only after he turned sixteen and even then in moderation. Knowing afterlife existed he didn’t want to take chances with not keeping his promise to watch out for the traps of gambling, alcohol and woman- the most prominent of the shinobi vices as his mother called them.

While waiting for his drink he asked the others, “How come all of you are here. Is there a shortage of missions?” He was genuinely curious; these were one of the elites and well known members of Konoha and the clients generally asked for them specially, to fulfill their requests.

“We are on reserve for the moment unless an emergency comes by. The academy graduation exams are going to take place by the end of the week and all of us are going to take on genin teams.” Kurenai said. She was quite excited by the prospect of teaching again; the situation with her last student, Yakumo, was one of her greater failures and she was rearing to do a better job this time around. It was her first time testing the teams on the account that it had been less than a year she had made a fully-fledged Jonin.

“And my team just completed a mission, a C-rank protection detail yesterday, so I’ve given them some time off.” Gai said with pride in his voice.

“You are taking a team too, Kurenai-senpai?” Naruto asked. Seeing her nod he said, “Oh man, why would you do that? We can’t go on missions together anymore. We could have been the best team in Konoha you know.”

Kurenai chuckled seeing Naruto sulk. They had gone on several missions together when Kurenai was a special-jonin and Naruto had just been promoted. She had been in charge of showing him the ropes and they had quickly discovered that Naruto and her abilities mashed well. He was a pure offensive frontline fighter who could do quick takedowns while she provided rear-end support using her genjutsu to give him an opening.

“I wanted to teach, Naruto.” She said gently. Seeing him continue to sulk she added, “And we wouldn’t be able to go on missions anyway. I heard you put forth an application for a promotion.” She only knew of it because she kept an eye out for him. He was someone she was in-charge of for a while, so it was natural that she wanted to keep tabs on his well-being.

“They are already considering promoting you?” Genma asked in amazement. It has only been year since Naruto’s promotion. He felt some pride at the fact that Naruto was growing stronger. He was one of the members of the Hokage’s guard platoon. He had served under the Fourth, and was personally trained by him to use the variant of Hiraishin.

“Yup, special-jonin, I don’t know the specific date but I’m up for an evaluation.” Naruto said cheerily.

Kakashi who had been pretending to read his precious book was also intrigued by this revelation. He was somewhat sad that he had no part in Naruto’s growth. He didn’t know why but Naruto always seemed uncomfortable in his presence. Though it was for the better he supposed considering that everything he held dear would sooner or later vanish.

Naruto could feel the rising distress Kakashi was feeling and he had to actively try to ignore them. Thankfully it was Guy who came to his rescue, knowingly or unknowingly he didn’t know.

“Naruto, my youthful friend your flames of youth are burning brightly. To match them Naruto-kun I will run 1000 laps around Konoha only using my hands and if I cannot do that, I’ll do a 1000 push-ups using only a single finger and if-” and he went on and on, until suddenly with a shout he ran out of the shop to try and fulfil his aforementioned promises leaving behind some money.

Kakashi also stood up to go on with his daily routine, “See ya.” And with that short statement he vanished in a puff of smoke.

Naruto turned towards the others and asked Raido and Genma, “So are you going to try for Jonin promotion and get teams too.”

“No, I like my job too much.” Raido commented, and he did enjoy working as an elite bodyguard along with Genma.

“Yup, and before even thinking of leaving that job we’ll have to train a replacement, and who knows how much time it would take.” Genma commented. He didn’t elaborate on the subject. It was a secret that he along with Raido and Iwashi were more suited to protect the hokage than the ANBU because they have been taught the Flying Thunder Formation to get him out of the battlefield if needed.

“Hmm… I completely understand. I don’t know why you would want to take genin students.” Naruto said pointedly looking at Kurenai.

“Maybe when you are older you will understand the joy of teaching Naruto.” Kurenai said wryly.

Asuma chuckled, “Why wouldn’t you want to teach kids Naruto. Imagine messing with starry eyed children.” earning him a glare from Kurenai.

“Don’t fill his head with nonsense Asuma.” She said sternly seeing that Naruto did look like he was contemplating the idea.

“So do you know who you want to be put on your team?” Naruto asked curiously.

“Well, this year’s crop seems to be good. As a member of the Sarutobi-clan I want to recreate the success of the Ino-Shika-Cho trio, so I guess I’m partial towards them.”

“You seem fairly certain that all of them would pass.” Kurenai asked, she had of course looked into the students’ performance reports, and aside from few of the students some of them had very shaky chances.

“The three of them are next in line to lead their clans, and I would be seriously surprised if their parents didn’t train them correctly to even pass the academy exams. What about you, do you have anyone in mind?” Asuma asked.

“I haven’t given it much thought. I’ll teach whomever I’m assigned, though there is this one girl who has a high aptitude for genjutsu. The Yamanaka or the Nara kids would have high aptitudes for genjutsu as well.”

“I guess so, seeing that both of the clans perform their clan techniques using Yin manipulation. Ino had already learned some of her clan’s techniques so she must have some grasp on the basics of it, I guess.” Naruto said remembering the time Ino had been harping about getting some mind technique down.

“Ino? You mean the Yamanaka heir.” Asuma asked. He knew of the girl as he had seen her file. What he didn’t expect was that Naruto knew her, and judging from her expression neither did Kurenai. They weren’t blind and knew about Naruto’s rather small circle of acquaintances. That was why it was a surprise to find out that Naruto knew someone who was close to his own age.

“Yup, she was quite excited about it, and knowing her she didn’t just bulldoze through the exercise. She might have looked into the basics of the technique.” Naruto said.

“Oh, so what can you tell me about her? You know so that if she’s in my team I could work with her more easily.” Asuma asked probingly.

“Well she’s kind of bossy and tends to nag a lot. She’s smart though, and if anything catches her interest she would go to great lengths to know more about it. After my first mission as a genin, a D-rank one, I refused to tell her about it, so she tried tailing me for about a week even skipping class once or twice before Inoichi-san put an end to it. I think she’s still mad about that.” Naruto said trying to succinctly sum up Ino’s character without giving too much detail.

“Hmm, good to know.” Asuma said apparently thinking about something.

Naruto sat with them for a while talking and finishing his drink before saying goodbye; it seemed they were waiting for more people to continue with their drinking. As he left the establishment he once again expanded his sensory range like he had done before. The muted presence he had come to associate with his watchers was still present inside one of the house near the bar, though he wasn’t quite sure if they were watching him at the moment. He had deliberated on asking help from Asuma, as he had the connections required to find out about his predicament. He was the son of the hokage and a former member of the twelve-guardians of the daimyo, one of the elites. And despite him being the son of the current Hokage he wasn’t quite close to his father.

But in the end he had decide not to because frankly, Naruto didn’t trust anyone he knew to choose him rather than the village, and he sure as hell wasn’t willing to sacrifice his daily-life for the village he had so few attachments to. If he had decided to ask Asuma or anyone else for that matter he would have to answer some questions he wasn’t quite comfortable answering. The ability to sense negative emotions was quite frankly one of the most ill-desired ability any ruler would want his foot-soldiers to have; let alone a jinchuriki. The ability just passively unravelled so many secretes, all the while it practically guaranteed the user the ability to never be deceived.

Naruto made his way towards his apartment to kill sometime before he went for ramen. That was all he had planned for today after working like hell for the past month; a day or two to relax before he got back to doing missions. As he went to use the body flicker technique to travel quickly he barely felt someone approaching his position at high speed, something rarely seen even when someone used the aforementioned technique; signifying the one using it to be an elite. Sure enough an anbu appeared in front of him.

“Uzumaki-san, the hokage has requested your presence urgently.” The masked anbu said rather succinctly, all Naruto could feel from the anbu was caution; not towards him rather towards everything in general.

Naruto looked towards the bird masked anbu, he couldn’t tell which kind of bird this anbu represented, and said, “Understood. I’ll be on my way.” He waited for the anbu to move along, so he could also body-flicker towards the hokage tower. It was taught to them not to suddenly use chakra is the presence of an anbu, as besides their own and the hokage they served, they did not consider anyone else as friendly, and might take any sudden action as a threat.

The anbu nodded as he gave a cursory glance towards his surrounding before disappearing without a trace, though Naruto could feel him moving towards the hokage tower with speeds that would make it seem instantaneous to those who had not trained to attain jonin speeds. “ _Truly an elite._ ” Naruto mused before he too disappeared and appeared near the hokage tower with a deliberate small cloud of smoke to make his presence known to the guards. He didn’t have the privilege to directly appear inside the building while masking his presence.

He made his way up the tower and asked the secretary sitting outside the office if the hokage was available, “Yes, the hokage is expecting you Uzumaki-san.” The secretary replied.

He entered the hokage’s office. It was already occupied by three people waiting for him including the hokage himself; the other two being Izumo and Kotetsu, his gate guard buddies. He raised a single eyebrow at them in query, he could see that Izumo was excited and he could even feel Kotetsu’s annoyance. Both of them though didn’t answer his implied question, so he turned towards the hokage, who at the moment was going through some reports.

“Ah, all of you are present. Dove.” The hokage called and suddenly an anbu appeared in front of them, the same one who had informed Naruto of the Hokage’s summon, holding a file and a bingo book. Naruto resisted the urge to snort at the name of the anbu, _“Dove, huh, if this was dove he hated to see what the others were like.”_ He really didn’t understand why someone would want to join the anbu, the pay wasn’t all that great and besides feeding your paranoia it didn’t seem to give any particular benefit. He heard Izumo read the bingo book aloud for the benefit of the others.

“Aoi Rokusho, male 25, physical description…hmm… here we go, former instructor of Konoha, tricked a genin into abandoning the village to join Amegakure, helped kill two of Konoha anbu and tortured a Konoha Nin. Current status: jonin of Amegakure, B-rank ninja, bounty: 15 million ryo. Capture dead or alive.” He read summarising the entry for the relevant information; anything else could be delved into later.

Naruto was confused. This, Aoi’s, crimes didn’t seem to match such a high bounty. Perhaps sensing his confusion the hokage gestured Izumo to read the other file he was provided, “Aoi Rokusho tricked a genin, Idate Morino, to steal a secret scroll along with a Senju clan artefact, Tobirama Senju’s legendary sword called the ‘Sword of the Thunder God’ which still seems to be in his possession. The rest of it is the same, killing anbu torturing a special jonin to try and decode the scroll.”

Now he understood, and he was very keen on hunting Aoi down; this was personal, while distant he still had relations to the Senju. They had promised to provide a home to all Uzumaki, so it was his duty to help the clan when he could, because while there was no one from the Senju clan living in the village right now they still hadn’t failed in fulfilling their promise to him.

“We have reports of seeing Aoi along with two others cross into Fire country from Grass and making his way towards either Sound or Iron, we are not sure. You three are to go to the border outpost of Konoha and meet the team tracking his progress, engage him and bring back the sword and the scroll if he has them. Naruto you will be the leader of this mission.” Hiruzen said briefing them while passing the mission directive to Naruto.

Naruto briefly read the mission and looked to the other two, seeing them nod, he said to the hokage, “Yes, sir.”

Saluting the hokage he made his way out of the office and turned towards the other two, “Izumo gather as much information on Aoi and the landscape as you can. Kotetsu gather the team supplies. Both of you be ready to leave in three hours. If we leave in the evening we would be able to reach the outpost by midnight and it would make it easier to cross the border in the dark, if it’s needed.”

The other two nodded and quickly left to take care of their assigned tasks as well as take care of any personal matters. They were both excited, even Kotetsu who generally preferred lazing around as it was rare for the hokage to personally call-in people and assign them missions. This was generally done for special cases where individual talents were required. _‘Maybe this was a way to see if he was ready for his promotion; he had said he would like to join a capture squad.’_ Naruto mused. Putting that thought aside he quickly made his way to Ichirakus. He had to take care of several things as well.

Entering the shop he quickly saw that there was only a single customer in there. It seemed both Ayame and Teuchi were working on making preparations for the oncoming dinner rush. He greeted them cheerily, “How are you doing, Ayame, pops.”

Both of them looked towards the familiar sounding voice to find Naruto sitting there.

“Naruto my boy! It’s good to see you. We are doing well enough, although since you haven’t been coming to the shop the business has been struggling.” Teuchi said jovially, and Naruto knew that Teuchi was joking; after all knowing Naruto’s reputation his absence might have even boosted their business a bit.

“Where have you been Naruto? Dad might be joking but he was very worried you know.” Ayame said somewhat chidingly.

“Me, it was you. You were worried senseless. He is a grown-up now, you know; he could take care of himself. You should stop hounding him.” Teuchi said as he moved to the back of the store to resume his cooking; he knew Naruto was a very capable young man. Hearing this Ayame just sent a withering glare towards her dad, Naruto might be a shinobi, but she knew he wasn’t above doing something reckless and stupid.

“Its fine, I had to take some time off to complete my training and do some research.” Naruto said trying to pacify Ayame.

“You should still have informed us before disappearing.” Ayame said with some frustration bleeding into her voice as she placed a bowl of ramen in front of him. She didn’t need to know what he wanted to order; his first order was always the same, if he wanted something else he would have told her already.

“I know, and I’m sorry. I won’t go on long absences without telling you, okay.” He said breaking apart his chopsticks. He continued after swallowing a mouthful, “I got the place you showed me last time.” Ayame and Teuchi had helped him find the place for his shop; they had good connections in the commercial market.

“You did!” Ayame said happily.

“Congratulations, Naruto. The first bowl’s on the house.” Teuchi piped up from the back of the bar.

“Thanks old man.” Naruto said somewhat loudly so Teuchi could hear him. He had come to accept these gestures from the Ichirakus; although he did repay them back in his own way, like sharpening their knives and fixing their other equipment. He had been working on a set of kitchen knives for the old-man as a present for some time now. They were far from finished.

“Could you do me a favour Ayame?” He said turning towards the waitress.

“Sure, what’s up?”

“I have to go on an urgent mission tonight and it might take me some time to complete it. Not more than a week. The construction crew I hired would be coming in tomorrow to fix up the place. Can you go there and make sure everything’s fine and they are working properly. I had already given them the specifications on what to do, so you don’t have to worry about anything. Here are the plans for it.” He said while passing Ayame a set of keys for the place and a small notebook in which he kept all the details for his shop, and the work area in the back where he planned to do the actual smithing.

Ayame took the keys and looked through the notebook. It had details on the size for the gas forge and quench tanks along with areas outlining where to place the machinery. There was also specifications on the place where weapons where to be put on display in the front of the shop, though they were less specific and seemed lacking.

“Don’t worry about the payment. I had already given them the advance and we had already made a deal for the rest of it.” Naruto added. Even though he had to pay a hefty sum for the advance the rest of the payment was quite lax seeing that he was a chunin and the position did come with quite a few perks. If he was a civilian _and_ an orphan he might have been in for a rougher time.

“When are they coming in for the job?” Ayame asked.

“About 11 in the morning.” Naruto said as he finished his ramen and ordered another bowl of Miso ramen.

“I can do that, don’t worry about it.” Ayame assured him before busying herself to prepare his order.

* * *

After he had spent some time chatting with them and eating two more bowls Naruto left the ramen shop and made his way towards Yamanaka flowers. Entering the shop he had expected to see Ino working the counter but was surprised to see her mother instead. She looked up from the flower arrangement she was preparing for a client when she heard the chime of the bell located above the shop’s door.

“Hello, Naruto-kun. I thought you would be coming tomorrow for dinner. Don’t tell me Ino got the date wrong?” She said frowning slightly it wasn’t like Ino to be forgetful.

“No Ino was right, I was going to come tomorrow but Hokage-sama assigned me an urgent mission just now and I don’t know when I’ll be back. That’s why I came to inform you and Ino.” Naruto said quickly.

“Oh, well that’s a shame I was looking forward to tomorrow’s dinner.” Yume said with slight disappointment lacing her voice.

Naruto instantly felt guilty, as if he had done something wrong and he wasn’t even at fault here, “I promise I’ll come by as soon as I can.” He promised hastily.

“I’ll hold you to it then, but you should still visit more often and not just for planned dinners.”

“I will.” Naruto nodded as he discreetly started looking around the shop, but he might not have been as discreet as he had hoped.

“Ino’s in her room, dear. She’s studying for her graduation exam.” She quipped correctly guessing what Naruto was thinking, “I’ll call her.” She said as she left and went upstairs to get Ino.

Naruto waited a while looking at the pretty flowers before he felt Ino coming down the stairs, her frustration building up. He could sympathise- studying for an exam was never fun.

She looked at him as she took a seat behind the counter and asked snappishly, “What do you want?”

Naruto could feel the need to make a rude remark in return but he curbed his instinct, as he didn’t want to leave on a mission after having a fight with Ino, so he said gently, “I have an urgent mission so I can’t come by tomorrow for dinner.”

“But, then we can’t go to your shop.” Ino said indignantly.

“Don’t be angry at me Ino; the Hokage personally asked me to go on the mission. I had to give Ayame the instructions on the construction work that’s going to take place tomorrow because I can’t supervise them myself.” He said quickly. He was a bit miffed about the timing of the mission too, though getting back the sword from Aoi was far too important for him to pass up on.

“Your construction crew is arriving tomorrow?” Ino asked with an odd gleam in her eyes.

Naruto had no idea what she was thinking, Ino was a girl and she was weird, he had accepted that fact long ago, “Yeah, I left Ayame with the plans.” He said somewhat warily.

“Okay, I get it. Don’t worry about showing me the shop. We can go there whenever you come back. How long will you be gone for anyway?” Ino inquired.

“No more than a week.”

“Well you better come meet me first when you return. You were gone for months and now you are going off again and just when I’ll become a genin too.” She warned him.

“I will. Sheesh Ino, you said you won’t be angry about that anymore.”

“I’m not angry.” Ino said rather angrily. Seeing that there’s no winning this argument Naruto just gave up because if he didn’t he would have to hear her nagging him that she indeed wasn’t angry.

“Fine if you say so. Well, I’ll see you when I get back then.” He said walking out of the store after seeing Ino acknowledge his farewell.

He quickly made his way towards his apartment. A short while later he stood in front of his door. Quickly going through a string of hand-seals to release the seals he had placed on the parameter, and deactivating some of the others he had drawn on the door itself by using the key matrix he had placed on his hand.

Some of the seals were basic wards from projectiles and elemental attacks while a few others were barrier seals with some alarm seals thrown in the mix. Basically anything and everything he could weave into a single powering matrix that would work without needing an active source, i.e., a person continuously pumping them full of chakra. These combinations of seals weren’t meant to stop any dedicated ninja from getting in; he couldn’t achieve that without drawing very large seals that covered several blocks of the neighbourhood. No they were made so that whoever wanted to get in couldn’t make it through without drawing attention of half the village.

He used his keys to open the door and while walking in quickly reactivated some of the seals that prevented spying as well as scrying, it might seem excessive but from what he knew about the Sarutobi clan artefact it didn’t feel enough. He made his way towards his closet and started packing his gear; some kunai he had made for emergency, he wasn’t that good with shurikenjutsu, his stash of seals, and some other essentials such as food, clothing, his toothbrush, a non-scented bar of soap and the like. With a quick nick of his finger he performed a summoning jutsu to bring his sword to him from his summoning realm.

It was a katana sheathed in a red scabbard with only its flat spiral guard, reminiscent of the Uzumaki symbol, visible. It had a slight curve to it and wasn’t like the version more popular with the shinobi the muzori katana which featured a straight edge as it granted more thrusting power and was better for quick takedowns. It was also slightly longer than those used traditionally. All in all it was a blade which seemed to have more in common with style of fighting the samurai were famous for. But still it was nothing compared to the monster of a sword his mother used to wield. One of the many reasons he was kind of scared of her; imagine a sweet looking woman swinging a sword as tall as her. He still had a hard time imagining the woman swinging a broadsword that big, effectively.

He placed his sword inside his new sash on his waist. His forehead protector had been an excellent sash for his sword but now he had to use it to conceal the experimental seal he had placed on his forehead. He looked at the battered looking alarm clock by his bed and saw that it was time to leave and made his way to the meeting point.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is part of a dual release so make sure you have read chapter 4 before you proceed.

Naruto was the second one to arrive at the meeting point; just after Kotetsu, who was sitting under a tree near Konoha's main gate and by the looks of it was taking a nap. Naruto himself jumped up to a lower branch to sit down and enjoy the cool breeze for a while. They didn't have to wait too long before Izumo arrived, "I'm not late, am I."

"No, you are right on time. Are we ready to move out?" Naruto said as he jumped down and nudged Kotetsu awake.

"I did some digging, and did find some useful stuff." Izumo said.

"I collected everything required for the mission and got the money allocated for an A-rank." Kotetsu said. It was a perk of working for a hidden village; they tend to provide some funding before the missions to cover the necessary expense such as lodging or fares for ships and caravans. It wasn't much but it was better than spending your own money.

"Good let's be on our way. We will be running at a comfortable pace so don't push yourself; we have time." Naruto informed his team. They started running towards their destination; it was Izumo who was guiding them as he had the job of charting their course.

"Izumo, what can you tell us about the mission?" Naruto asked. He was very grateful to the Hokage for assigning him people he knew on an urgent mission; he didn't need to waste his time figuring their strengths and fighting style. He didn't believe this to be a coincidence. It was intentional on the hokage's part, to provide a team with the best chance of survival all the while using the least amount of resources.

"Aoi, when he was in Konoha's service was not that exceptional, a chunin instructor, chunin level skills in Tai, Nin and Gen, no known competence in kenjutsu." Izumo replied.

"So he is amateur at best with the thunder blade?" Kotetsu said from his position in the rear. It was a simple line formation with Naruto leading.

"The information is- what two years old?" Seeing Izumo nod Naruto continued, "He would have made progress in his abilities. Consider him a jonin level threat. Better be safe than sorry." Now that they were quite a distance away from Konoha he expanded his senses to the limits. His range wasn't something he could use to compete against accomplished trackers and sensors like the Hyuga, Aburame or the Inuzuka nor did it provide any extreme details that were hard to erase. His ability wasn't meant for it. But given his range, which was just about half a kilometer, give or take, it was damn near impossible to ambush him.

"In the academy he basically taught shurikenjutsu and its applications." Izumo summed up his abilities before moving onto other topics. "He's about 5'10", here's a photo" He said passing them the photos he had made copies of earlier.

Naruto looked at the photo of a man with dark green hair with purple eyes; he didn't look too dangerous or like someone who would betray the village; a good visual deception.

After giving back the photos to Izumo, Naruto gestured him to continue.

"For being a legendary blade, I couldn't find anything about it. I didn't have the time to put in a request for the information." Izumo said apologetically. He prided himself on his ability to gather information on various subjects, so it was slightly embarrassing that he hadn't collected information on such a famous weapon beforehand.

"Don't worry about it. Any knowledge relating to a Hokage is generally hard to find and considering the fact that the weapon was stolen they might have removed all public knowledge about it. It's embarrassing to the village, ya know." Naruto said reassuringly, "The weapon when not in use looks like it has no blade only a hilt. When activated it appears as the blade is made of pure lightning chakra, but that is not quite right the blade is solid; there are seals placed on it that give it substance."

"How do you know so much about that?" Kotetsu said eyeing Izumo who seemed to have become more depressed after listening about the blade.

"I'm a weaponsmith; I make it my business to know about famous blades." Naruto chuckled, though he did have an inside source, "and for your information the blade was made by an Uzumaki. It was a gift to the Senju clan for providing more vegetation to the islands of whirlpool."

"Wow." Kotetsu said impressed by that information.

Izumo meanwhile was writing the information down; he paused for a moment to ask, "So, can you make a similar weapon." He imagined wielding something similar.

"No, the blade was made by a grandmaster- Yoshindo Uzumaki; I'm nowhere near his skill level. Even if I knew how to make a similar sword and had the skills required to craft that blade it would still come out a bit different. To be able to craft a sword of that caliber you can't reach that level by pure imitation. Why do you think there are only seven famous swords in the mist and each one unique too." Naruto tried his best to impress upon them the difficulty of blade crafting.

"Don't let the sword touch you it will hit you with a force of a B-rank lightning jutsu. It can also cut chakra easily." He continued with his description.

Seeing that they understood the information about the blade he said, "Anything else we should know about the mission."

"You know about the general lay of the land." Izumo asked seeing them nod he continued, "There has been rumors of a new player."

"Near our borders?" Naruto asked in astonishment.

"Yup."

"Then why haven't we taken care of it?" Kotetsu asked. The five major villages were very particular about their area of influence and were always swift in action if someone was encroaching on their territory. Konoha in particular was very sensitive of this issue as it was the center of elemental nations. It was the only great village which didn't have any natural defenses apart from its forest; Suna was a desert and was very hard to traverse, Iwa and Kumo had mountains upon mountains with Kumo only connected to the mainland by a small strip of land owned by the land of frost the other sides were only accessible by sea, and lastly Kiri was just a collection of islands.

"No idea. I couldn't find much information on it, so it could be that we don't know much about them?" By the end of his statement it was as if Izumo was asking them of their opinion, and the other two after some thought realized that they too were clueless.

"So what do you know then?" Naruto urged him. He had an interest in geography and the other villages as he had spent most of his time with baachan listening to her stories about events past.

"It's rumored to exist somewhere in Sound, a new hidden village Otogakure but no one knows for sure, though it seems they are expanding in size. It's rumored to be approved by the daimyo of sound."

"What? Isn't he afraid of retaliation from the others?" Naruto asked in bewilderment.

The countries of River which had Tanigakure, Rain which had Amegakure, Grass which had Kusagakure, Waterfall which had Takigakure, Iron land of the samurai, Sound which did not have a hidden village and lastly Hot water which had Yugakure were all spread around in a clockwise direction around Konoha, sharing its borders. Apart from Ame because of Hanzo, Taki as they had a jinchuriki and Iron which had a formidable army of samurai the others were weak in strength and as such mostly existed to provide a buffer between the major villages.

Oto served no major purpose to the great nations, and it was only because of its proximity to Iron country which every ninja village had agreed to not interfere with and hot water which was a major tourist attraction thus very peaceful (though it did provide information on wealthy civilians and nobles), that it was left alone.

"He must be quite sure of the strength of their shinobi." Izumo said.

"Or he is an idiot and doesn't understand ninja politics." Kotetsu said which caused Naruto to laugh.

"Shhh, are you an idiot. Don't talk like that about the daimyo. Do you want to get us in trouble?" Izumo berated him, somethings aren't meant to be said aloud.

"Who's gonna hear us in the wild Izumo." Kotetsu said calmly already accustomed to Izumo's willingness to be a stickler.

"Still, if you are not careful you might slip up later when someone _is_ listening." Izumo insisted.

"Izumo, anything else you would like to tell us?" Naruto cut in trying to prevent any oncoming argument between the two.

"Nope." Izumo said. "This way" He continued while motioning them to slightly alter their path.

Naruto nodded and he focused on his surroundings as they made their way towards their destination.

They had arrived at the outpost earlier than Naruto's estimate; Izumo had done a great job. They were informed that one chunin, an Inuzuka, had trailed their targets to a small border town and had sent them instructions to meet them near it. The journey to the village was quite short and they had reached the designated spot in under an hour. Naruto could already feel the presence of others near their position.

The unease of the two people he was feeling, if you consider the ninken of the Inuzuka as a person, was alarming. The Inuzuka as a clan were very much attuned to their instincts, and if something was making them weary it was disconcerting. He was glad that the one tracking Aoi was an Inuzuka because if it were anyone else Naruto and his company would have to prove their identities first before they can exchange any information. It was true the other way too because while there existed other ninjas who used animals as companions what were the odds of it being a dog, and even if it were to happen Naruto would have sensed deception.

The ninja and his companion, a rather large dog about 5 feet in length that looked to have a wolf as its immediate ancestor, slowly walked towards them and stopped a little distance away. "Are you the one sent here for the capture mission? I'm chunin Hiei and this is Ginmaru my partner." The gruff looking Inuzuka said. He was taller than all three of them, had brown shaggy hair and the markings of his clan on his cheeks.

"I'm Naruto, chunin and the leader of this team; these are chunin Izumo and chunin Kotetsu. We have been assigned to track down and apprehend Aoi Rokusho missing-nin of Konoha." Naruto said as he passed the man the mission scroll which contained the said details and nothing more.

Hiei glanced through the scroll and began detailing his observations, "Aoi is accompanied by two others, a male and a female. I checked their physical description through the bingo book but couldn't find a match. They appear to be on information gathering mission; they entered the village and were asking the locals some questions, what about I'm not quite sure. After sometime they joined a caravan disguised as civilians and made their way towards Makkari. It's a small fishing village in Sound. Going by their travelling speed they will reach it by tomorrow's evening" He said pointing towards a village on the map he had unfurled.

"You didn't pursue." Kotetsu asked.

"I didn't think it was a good idea without any back-up. There have been some skirmishes near the borders of Sound. Nothing grand but it would be too much going into hostile territory without a team."

"Understandable. Thank you for your work we will take it from here." Naruto assured the man before parting ways.

* * *

Ino had woken up early today which was unusual for her considering the fact that the academy was closed for a week so that the students could prepare for their exams. Normally she would have been asleep at this time. It wasn't that she wished to be awake but she had some stuff to do, important stuff. She quickly made her way towards the little shop she didn't usually visit; at least not alone.

She pushed the flaps aside and peered in. She was looking to see if someone was manning the counter or not. She jumped slightly when she heard a voice behind her.

"Ino?"

Cursing herself for not realizing someone was behind her and a civilian at that. She quickly turned around and greeted the person.

"Ayame-san. Good morning."

Ayame made her way inside the shop and started preparing the shop to open up for the day.

"Good morning, Ino. Naruto isn't here ya know. He went on a mission." Ayame said.

"I know. He came by yesterday to tell me that." Ino said quickly thinking of a way to broach the subject of why she was here.

Ayame raised an eyebrow at that. She had thought that to be the reason why she was here this early in the morning.

"Are you here to eat ramen then? I still haven't figured out how to make the nutrition ramen taste good. It's still missing something." That was something Ayame was struggling with. Her father wasn't willing to help her in the endeavor citing something about her learning the art of ramen making through experimentation.

"I'm not here about that either." She said hesitantly. The last one Ayame made her taste test was horrible, and she couldn't just say no to it either; it had been her idea after all. A good diet was essential for a shinobi to be effective, as they were taught so in the academy. They even had a resident medic-nin to keep students health in check; it was another one of the criterion to pass the academy. A change in even single kilogram of weight could throw of your balance and affect your speed; she might be exaggerating on that front, but dammit she worked hard on gaining a perfect height weight ratio with good fat percentage. It was the single class she had paid the most attention to; it might have been because the teacher giving the lecture was an older kunoichi with a perfectly proportioned body. She suspected they had chosen the kunoichi for that very reason. She had told them to not diet but also to not load up on empty carbs. Ramen were generally that empty carbs and sodium. She might have been obsessed by this point in finding healthy but delicious food and a bit jealous of Choji who could eat whatever he wanted. That is the reason she had proposed the idea for a more nutritious ramen to Ayame who had latched on to the idea- as a fellow women who was struggling with the same problem given the fact that ramen featured heavily in her meals.

"Then what is it?"

"You know Naruto mentioned leasing a place to open shop."

"He did, he came by yesterday to tell me about it, gave me the keys too. The construction crew is coming today and he wanted me to watch over their work."

"Yeah that, I want to be there as well when they come."

"Why?" Ayame asked skeptically. Watching people haul wood, cement and the like was boring. She couldn't think of a reason why someone would volunteer to do that.

"I want to help in decorating the shop."

"I don't know Ino, Naruto already gave me the plans for the shop."

"But you know him, I'll bet you that he focused all his attention on making the workshop function and didn't put any thought on the aesthetics. If we go along with his idea it would look like a rundown smithy you go to buy hooks and ploughs for the field and not weapons."

Ayame had looked into the plans in more detail yesterday after closing her shop and it did look like the only thing Naruto had put in the plans for the front was a cashier's desk and a display case. It did look very dull.

"But he had already negotiated the payment. We can't just make changes that would end up costing him money."

"We won't do something drastic like that, just some small stuff. I promise." Ino said earnestly. She could see that Ayame was of the same mind as her on this matter. The shop would do great with someone like Ino assisting. She imagined her masterful skill in decoration and aesthetics to bring in more customers, so that Naruto could earn more money and not be as stingy as he was. She was planning to cash in on all the times she had to share her candy with Naruto when they were little. It was such a better time when she could eat as many sweets as she wanted to.

"I guess so. The crew will be arriving at about 11, so meet me here half an hour earlier." Ayame said. She wasn't fully convinced that this was a good idea but she told herself that with her there she could put a stop to Ino doing anything too outrageous.

"Got it." Ino said cheerily and made her way to her clan compound to get some training in before the meeting. She had about three hours' time to complete some taijutsu training as well as some target practice and then shower. She wasn't going to be sweaty all day long, if she could help it.

They had a small personal area behind their house where she was allowed to practice, there were some bigger, proper training grounds in the compound as well but those were only open for people who were chunin or above. Greeting her mother who was still working in the kitchen, it was still early in the morning after all and their shop wasn't opened until later if her father was out on missions, she made her way to their backyard. A few years ago when Naruto was still in the academy he was employed to help open and close the shop, moving stuff from the back, cleaning, and watering the plants but he had never manned the counter even when he was on a holiday. She missed those days as she didn't have to do too much of the boring stuff around the shop; it was only because of her exams was she free from doing any of it for a while.

She wanted to get as much training done as she could, so she could be the kunoichi of the year, it was a tough competition; Sakura had mad brains on her for the technical aspect of the shinobi life. Ino might have an edge on her on the physical aspect of their training and even then it was not by much; the only thing she could say for certain that she was good at was shurikenjutsu. She was the top scorer on those tests sometimes even tying with Sasuke.

She would have loved to be the rookie of the year but Sasuke was leagues ahead of her in taijutsu; his style was far too effective against the academy style she and the others used. She had asked her father to teach her a more effective style but the Yamanaka taijutsu wasn't meant for frontal confrontation and was only effective when used in conjunction with their clan's techniques, something she either didn't know or was not allowed to use in the academy. The only one capable of giving Sasuke any problem in taijutsu was Kiba but he was very weak in the other areas of the academy.

She pulled out her kunai and shuriken and began practising with fervour.

* * *

The fact that they were travelling as ninjas as opposed to their targets had helped them reach the village of Makkari before the merchant contingent. It was still early in the afternoon; they would have reached the place before if they hadn't stopped to rest for the night.

They had rented a small room in an inn using the money they were provided for the mission, and the three of them were currently occupying it so that they could plan their next step. Naruto had never been someone who could make plans that had 100 variations, steps ahead of steps, unlike his jonin sensei. Shukaku was an intelligent man but he was not wise; he needed someone with a similar mind-set as his own to be able to teach them effectively. But Naruto had learned two important things from him, well not from him per se but from observing him; one of them being to not give his opponent the time to prepare, and the other would be to limit the amount of information they have access to. He was certain the reason for his placement in Shukaku's team was so that the man could keep an eye on him. It didn't matter he mused, he needed Konoha as much as Konoha needed him.

"So, what's the plan?" Kotetsu asked.

"Should we ambush them in the village? Though it could be problematic to fight here." Izumo supplemented his opinion.

"Hiei said that they might be here on an information gathering mission. We could work with that." Naruto said. He really didn't want to put civilians in danger.

"What do you mean?"

"We could be more overt. Give them a target to spy on; these are Ame-nin they might be confident in there ambush tactics. We could easily lead them towards the outskirts and take them in." Naruto was confident in his plan. Shinobi from Ame were notoriously hired for assassination missions between all the hidden villages and thus were surer of their ability to ambush others.

"What if they are successful in taking us by surprise?" Kotetsu asked.

"They won't be able to; we'll keep tabs on them." Seeing that they were still sceptical he added, "Trust me."

"It could work, but what if we catch the attention of someone else." Izumo said as he analysed all the details of their mission.

"We don't know how strong they are, and considering the fact that we don't have a number advantage over them this is the only plan I could think of that might work with minimal collateral damage. Sound is in a treaty with Konoha we can't just wreak havoc here. If we try anything when they are alert we might not be able to take them on swiftly; besides when has there ever been a plan that had a guaranteed outcome for success." Naruto tried to persuade his companions. He could have forced them to follow his orders considering the fact that he was leading the team, but voluntary cooperation went further than forced coercion.

"I'm in." Kotetsu said; he was convinced. He had known Naruto for quite some time now, and knew he would not put their lives in unnecessary risk.

Izumo thought for a while and nodded, "Let's iron out the details then."

They had decided to be brazen about their presence in the village, considering the fact that Aoi had been a chunin instructor only a couple years back it was pretty safe to assume that he knew about Izumo and Kotetsu being chunin at that time. Since both of them were not in the bingo book and weren't famous for their strength the Ame-nin wouldn't be wary of taking them on.

Naruto's presence on the other hand was dubious; Naruto didn't remember Aoi being his chunin instructor in the academy so there was a chance that Aoi didn't know of him, but considering the fact that he was a jinchuriki the chance of that was pretty low; everyone in Konoha and their mother knew of him. So as not to scare them away with the prospect of facing a jinchuriki it was decided that Naruto would be somewhat disguised, it was just him wearing a travelling cloak, it wasn't very elaborate but considering the fact Naruto was going to mostly stay in their room until it was time to leave it shouldn't matter much. Since he had a stature of someone young, there was a good chance that they would not consider him a threat and look into his identity too much. It was very rare for someone young to have considerable strength after all.

A team of two chunin and maybe another chunin but probably a genin didn't look too threatening anyway.

* * *

They had made it inside the village quite easily, Aoi was sure that the rumours about someone starting a village in sound was bogus. The security around the borders had been very lax. He had been sent to investigate and sabotage the shinobi of sound if the opportunity presented itself. The other two in his team, chunins he thought disdainfully, were unnecessary attachments in his opinion. With the sword of the thunder god in his hands he was invincible. He sincerely felt that the mission was beneath his stature but since it was issued to him by the higher ups he couldn't dismiss it, even though he was virtually invincible with the sword in his possession he was still weary of facing God and his Angel.

It was tedious for him to travel at a civilian pace but for the sake of gathering information easily it was something that was essential. Aoi assigned the other two to gather information while he rested in one of the small inns in the village. The chunin were much better equipped in information gathering than he was. It was relatively late at night when the two came back to report their findings.

Apparently recently some Konoha shinobi have arrived in the village and were asking questions. From the description he was provided he easily guessed their identities, Izumo and Kotetsu the gate guards from Konoha, talentless trash. They didn't have any ambition and were content with mediocrity. They were weak though and it would be beneficial to interrogate them and find out whatever information they have gathered, and this time he would make sure that these Konoha trash do not escape.

He assigned the chunin to keep watch on the Konoha shinobi; they would strike when they are in a more secluded area. It wasn't late into the next morning that he was notified about their target's movements. They were leaving the village and it was time to go on a hunt.

* * *

Having a massive malicious monster stuck inside you lends a certain perspective; you start to appreciate the small things in life. Sure, having a biju came with a slew of negatives, but he had long ago cultivated the mind-set to look at the bright side of things; it was all he could do at the time to come to terms with his situation.

The ability to sense negative emotions was by far the greatest boon, and the other one was something his baachan hadn't told him about at first, if he had known about it he might not have gotten the ability to be as potent as he had. Chakra was the product of the spiritual as well the physical; sometimes knowing the outcome of your endeavour affects the outcome itself. If he had known that he would gain something from facing the kyuubi he might have failed.

He could still her soothing voice providing him with the strength he needed to work on his fears.

" _Naru-kun, Kyuubi as a biju is the strongest there is and the hate and bloodlust it contains is otherworldly. Now, it might have been without your consent that you have been given this burden, but life is rarely fair no matter how much we wish." She said sadly._

" _That is why now that you are its jailer you have to be willing to face it; the thing that prevents the biju from escaping is not the seal but your own will to contain it. No matter how strong the seal you are what stands between him and the world outside. You must remember those who love you Naru, when you feel yourself wavering. Remember me, remember your mother." She had instructed him as he sat down and meditated to prepare for the confrontation._

It had only been mildly successful at first; he had made it into the seal but to feel the sheer hatred and malice of the greatest biju wasn't easy, and he had lost consciousness in mere seconds. He had only been 10 at the time after all. But he was an Uzumaki and if nothing else he was persistent, unyielding, and with time the exercise had been fruitful. Then again to combat against someone's strong destructive intent was to produce your own.

"NOW" Naruto shouted as he felt the squad of the Ame-nin begin to move for their ambush. He saw Aoi standing behind the trees partially obscured by foliage, throw his umbrella into the air. Naruto unleashed one of his trump cards; focusing on his target, so Izumo and Kotetsu wouldn't get caught into its grasp, as he ran forward feeling the ground beneath him crumble.

Aoi had just launched his specially designed umbrella to release a barrage of poisoned senbon, and had just started to raise his hand, already forming the hand-sign required to release the mechanism seal placed on it. Evidently the enemy had been aware of their ambush, for how long he was not sure, but frankly he didn't believe it mattered much. That thought only lasted until he saw the third member of the Konoha team, clearly a teenager, run towards him and unleash what felt like pure death; cracking the ground beneath the monster's feet. He felt his body seize, as if an unbearable pressure was weighing down on his mind, filling his head with images of his own death; though what made the experience all the more sickening was the voice, similar to his own, whispering sweet words of blissful release. But he wasn't a jonin for nothing and he started telling his body to move, trying to force it into motion. He was very much unwilling to let go of his life.

Naruto made his way towards Aoi; his tactic had left the opposite team vulnerable, he was a big advocate of shock and awe, and frankly the pressure he could produce would even stun a seasoned jonin for a few seconds and Aoi or his team weren't at the level of an elite by the looks of it.

He saw Kotetsu launch his mace, which greatly resembled a conch shell, towards his opponent and heard Izumo launch a jutsu, if his shout of ' _ **Water Release: Starch Syrup Capturing Field'**_ was any indication, towards the kunoichi. He focused his attention on Aoi who was struggling to release himself from the hold his own primal fear had placed upon his body. It was a shame that the distance between them had been too great and filled with minor obstacles or else it would have been already over.

They had greatly debated on how they would go on about engaging the enemy- should they gang up on Aoi or should they take out the two unknowns, who could be stronger and more dangerous than the sword carrying traitor of Konoha. In the end Naruto had sensed Aoi's disdain towards his teammates and he had decided to go for individual targets gambling on the fact that the others were weaker and Aoi would be the real threat, and thus he had communicated his plan between them through discreet hand signs.

He unsheathed his sword as he neared Aoi's position, and like every other time in the past he had used his sword he couldn't help but marvel at his own creation. It was an azure coloured blade- controlled oxidation was a wonderful thing when you have an innate grasp of the blade material, patterned with little swirls of oceanic blue giving the appearance of little whirlpools; he had introduced those to the billet while making the blade. The Tsuba (Guard) of the sword made of blackened chakra conducting steel was a flat spiral, and looked remarkably like the Uzumaki clan symbol. Similarly the Tsuka (Handle) of his katana was made using the wood of the tree used to make chakra paper covered by the samegawa (Sharkskin or Rayskin) given to him by his summons; it was a light blue scaly material- the skin of an elder of the serpent clan, all of it held in place by a traditional Ito (Braid).

The moment he reached Aoi he went for a swipe, trying to keep the wound he would inflict to be shallow. Aoi by this time had managed to gain some control of his body and stumbled back clumsily to avoid being bisected. He pulled out his sword and activated it making the blade appear. Naruto had to hold back his anger, as he could already feel the steady thrum of power trying to push through and rip apart the offending man in front of him who dared steal something from his family. He could already see the small bright spots appear in his vision, lighting the world around him to give him better vision; before he clamped down on his unnatural source of power. He hastily took a step back so as to give himself some room to settle his thoughts.

He observed his opponent. Aoi didn't seem to have a swordsman's stance, it was more of a ninja wielding any other weapon rather than using a stance one required for such a specialised sword. This was good; not only would Aoi be unable to exercise the full capability of the weapon, he was fighting against someone proficient in kenjutsu. Ducking under Aoi's strike Naruto went for a leg sweep forcing Aoi to create some distance by jumping back.

Naruto sensed that Kotetsu was done with his opponent, but Izumo seemed to be struggling. Seeing that Aoi was setting himself for a charge in his direction; he went with the quick and dirty method to buy himself some time. With enough practice any jutsu could be used without hand-signs; it just required sufficient chakra, the control over it and lastly moulding it in the peculiar way it was required for the technique to work. Naruto didn't have the control for it to be efficient but who needs efficiency when you have chakra in abundance. He cupped his left hand in front of his mouth all the while moulding his chakra and released several large bullets made of water in front of him.

Of course Aoi wasn't stupid he chose to dodge the jutsu rather than try cutting it with his sword; even though he was perfectly capable of doing so and would have maintained his speed in the process but lightning and water was not a good match when you are effectively holding on to a live wire of sorts.

* * *

Izumo was having some trouble with his opponent. At first they had successfully gained the initiative in battle, discounting the fact they had faltered in the beginning when Naruto's rage washed over the area; even if they were not the target, it still felt overwhelming. Izumo had targeted the kunoichi while releasing his water jutsu; it was designed to capture targets quick and easy. What was surprising was that the woman had been the one to recover the quickest. She quickly threw some kunai in his direction while jumping up to get out of the range of his jutsu, a wave of sticky syrup washed over where she was standing just a moment before.

Weaving through the several kunai thrown at him he advanced towards her while pulling out his kusari. The chain had both of its ends weighted, he was by no means a front line fighter it was more of Kotetsu's forte; he was the support in most situations and in those rare occasions where he went for a frontal assault it was in combination with Kotetsu. So, a kusari was a good weapon for him, it provided range and maneuverability forcing his opponents to make wider motions to evade. Now comfortably in range of the kunoichi he sent one of the weighted ends of his chain forward, expecting the kunoichi to dodge to the side he subtly yanked the chain in his hand to make it sweep across to the side following her. He surreptitiously controlled his earlier water jutsu as he had not released his hold over it; the slime like water borrowed underground to move behind his opponent. The ongoing control of his jutsu was a trade-off over his ability to cast another one.

The kunoichi ducked under the sweeping chain making several hand signs before she felt something off with her surroundings; it was because of the various battles she had been- that on pure instinct she abandoned her jutsu and slapped her hands on the ground. It wasn't a jutsu but pure earth manipulation that caused the earth around her to rise to a few feet in height; surrounding her with hardened walls. It was the second stage of elemental manipulation one learned when they wanted to familiarise themselves with moulding earth natured chakra. She saw the quick moving water jutsu halt just behind her as the ground it was borrowing through had hardened. That had been too close for her comfort, if she hadn't been so quick it would have been over for her.

Izumo cursed under his breath; she had to be an earth user. He didn't know how she escaped his technique but the fight wasn't going as he had envisioned. She had somehow disabled his jutsu by using the earth chakra to halt its progress. Seeing the woman pull out her tanto, presumably to engage him in close quarter combat, he thought of his next step until he felt the hold on his jutsu disappear.

He yanked his chain back in preparation of whatever was to come only to falter when his jutsu morphed into the form of Naruto and latched onto the kunoichi before bursting; capturing the kunoichi by halting her movement. Izumo hastily flickered behind her and shook of the brief rigidness that came over his body, a side effect of using high speed movement like substitution or body flicker, before knocking her out using one of the weights at the end of his chain. He was left wondering at the amount of chakra and proficiency it would require to overpower and manipulate someone else's jutsu for your own purpose. He knew Naruto was also skilled in water manipulation as they had often discussed it amongst themselves as fellow users of water style techniques but he wasn't expecting him to be so good.

He quickly went on to tie up the kunoichi before he would go help the others. It wouldn't be fun if the kunoichi woke up when they were focused on defeating her teammates.

* * *

Pulsing his chakra to make his water clone burst Naruto prayed that his little gambit had worked in helping Izumo defeat the enemy nin. As he felt the kunoichi lose consciousness he started running towards Aoi to finish his battle.

"You should give up boy with the sword of the thunder god in my hands I'm invincible." Aoi said as he started hacking towards Naruto.

"Is that so? From the looks of it you are just swinging the sword wildly." Naruto calmly said as he dodged the oncoming sword strikes, although it was a little annoying that he couldn't try and parry the opponent's sword and strike back.

"It's only a matter of time before you fall to this sword brat." Aoi sneered. He might have been frightened before but as he pushed the boy back he felt stupid, to think the boy had scared him with his little trick.

"You know, seeing you swing that sword is embarrassing." Naruto quickly stepped in and swung his swords diagonally as if to cleave through him.

Aoi brought up his own sword to block the incoming strike. ' _It's over_.' He thought smugly, as he knew when the two swords connected the boy would be electrocuted. He was preparing to pump more chakra into the sword to increase its power when his opponent's sword disappeared from his sight only to reappear when he felt it cutting into his body. He felt extreme pain rush through his body as he heard in a cold whisper " _ **Yin release: vanishing strike**_ " before fainting.

Naruto sheathed his sword and crouched down to check up on the prone form of his opponent to inspect his wounds. He had made sure to not make the cut go in too deep by blunting the edge of his sword. Aoi was bleeding but he would survive; capturing an enemy shinobi was always more profitable than killing them, information on other hidden villages was precious after all. Considering the fact that Aoi was a missing-nin first there was no real consequence of capturing him. His two team-mates were aiding a criminal, whether they were following official orders or not was a non-factor. He placed a chakra suppression seal and a disruption seal on his back. Both of them were ready made seals drawn on paper and unlike the ones which were customised based on a person's chakra network these were less effective but still required enough skill to remove.

Picking him up he made his way towards where this teammates had gathered and they were just done tying up their prisoners. He gently placed him on the ground and without a word Kotetsu started tying up Aoi with ninja wires.

"Are you injured?" Kotetsu asked.

"No, I'm fine didn't even get a scratch. What about you two?" Naruto replied.

"I had an easy fight. The guy wasn't even able to move before I hit him. I had just arrived as Izumo finished his fight."

"I was struggling a bit but thanks to you it didn't last long."

"I am kinda disappointed though. The idiot didn't know how to use the sword at all." Naruto grumbled. He had given the sword a cursory glance and there were very minute fractures on the seals.

"You have it then." Izumo asked excitedly. It wasn't every day that you get to see a legendary weapon.

Naruto pulled out the hilt from inside his haori and activated the seal on it to release the blade; he spoke as the others looked at it with awe, "The idiot didn't take care of it. One or two use in battle and it's going to break."

"It can't be repaired?" Kotetsu asked as he went on to bandaging Aoi's wounds.

"With this much damage the only way to salvage it would be to remake it." He had wanted to say reforge but he wasn't quite sure if the sword was ever forged in the first place. He took one last look at the sword before storing it inside a storage scroll. He handed Izumo and Kotetsu his restriction seals to place them upon their prisoners.

Moving live prisoners was always a pain in the ass because unlike dead bodies you can't just shove them into scrolls. He was about to ask if they were ready to leave when he felt people enter his sensory range moving towards their direction.

"Incoming, multiple shinobi, they aren't friendly." Naruto said quickly as he formed a single hand-seal causing a small wall of water to appear in front of him. He bit his thumb and sped through another set of hand seals this time using both of his hands, before slamming them onto the side of the small pool of water. There was a puff of smoke inside the water before it came down losing its cube like form.

"Is that a snake Naruto?" Izumo asked nervously. Snakes had a very bad connotation in Konoha, as Orochimaru was the only one who held the scroll to sign the summoning contract.

Izumo had to step back in alarm when the snake hissed in his direction, clearly displeased with his question, showing rows of jagged teeth. It was about 4 feet in length and had a snout like a crocodile and small ridges going down the back of its spine.

"No, Umi-chan here is a sea serpent." Naruto said absentmindedly before turning towards his summon, "Can you take these three back with you? I have to keep them alive." He hated the fact that he had to show the others that he was in possession of a summoning contract.

"I can, young master." Umi replied before opening her jaw wide and swallowing the three prisoners; effectively traumatising Izumo and Kotetsu before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

"Get ready they are here." Naruto said before his sword flashed forward striking the shuriken out of the air, bisecting them with ease. Out of the corner of his eyes he saw the pieces of the broken shuriken shatter into pink crystal like fragments before disappearing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't proofread my notes
> 
> Before proceeding to the important stuff I would like to thank everyone who had bookmarked my story and left kudos.
> 
> Now onto the important stuff-
> 
> 1) This is a dual release because of two major reasons, at first both of the chapters were supposed to be a single one but after the first one went over 5k words I decided to split it into two when I found a good point to end the chapter. I know longer chapter are better but if a chapter is too long like 10K+ it feels like too much to go through in a single sitting (fyi avg. chapter length of HP philosopher’s stone is 4.5k). The second reason for not publishing chapter 4 as it was finished is because editing your own chapters is a pain in the ass. I have to reread my own story when it’s fresh in my mind at least about 4 times before it’s suitable to post. And since I have freshly written the chapter my eyes seem to gloss over the mistakes as my brain automatically corrects them or fills in the blanks. That is why after some time maybe a month or two I would go back and reread my own chapters to correct the mistakes I have failed to see starting from chapter 1 (no major changes to the story or dialogue just typos and stuff).
> 
> 2) That is why if someone is willing to read my drafts and find any plot-holes or continuity error or such please let me know. I don’t need a full on beta reader (though it would be great to have one) to go through my story with a fine toothed comb. If you could help me research and be willing to think of the consequences of the changes I’ll be making, I would be grateful and I could provide a similar service in return if you want. I could help you research stuff, find typos and help with ideas.
> 
> Now that the imp. stuff is over I’ll say something about the two chapters, I went differently with the Ino and Sakura dieting route because first it is stupid to go on a diet as a ninja and second when I looked into the stat sheets genin Naruto himself is close to being underweight along with Sakura only Sasuke had a comfortable height/weight ratio, even Kakashi who should have muscles is kinda underweight. I don’t know why this is so I changed it somewhat and felt that the village or the academy would provide classes on the subject when being a ninja requires you to be fit. Speaking of databooks I hate them with their weird stats and knowledge, I know Kishi himself wrote some of them but damn its hard making sense of it all and there's some stuff I would like to ignore (Moegi having Mokuton- how had no one tried to kidnap her even if to just see what makes hashirama so powerful if their mokuton is different) and like the fact that before Neji extended his range all Hyugas had a limit of 50m 360 vision.
> 
> The names of the people and the villages in the chapters are random like Yoshindo is a name of a famous smith in japan I found through google, same with Makkari it’s the first name I found in google, Hiei is from yu yu hakusho; can’t use Yosuke for a throw away character, kuwabara is weird and Kurama well its already taken. Umi meant sea so I used it for the sea serpent. I used Japanese words for the sword description because some of them have no good English equivalents and when I write further about the swords or smithing techniques it would be difficult to look for English words.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll try and release chapter 7 in a couple of hours as I'm in the process of editing it, so you could wait for it if you wish. This chapter has a couple of terms I'd like to clear up and thus I've posted them in the notes at the end.

Mito looked at her boy; he had been depressed for days now, crying whenever he thought she wasn’t looking. It broke her heart these days to see him with perpetually swollen eyes, his cheeks stained with dried tears. She just wished that there was another way but her time was up. Her jutsu was failing. She had spent all she had in trying to teach him everything. She tried to fill in the void that was created in him through a result of wilful ignorance, misunderstanding, neglect and the lack of will to do what was right.

They had tried to cover everything they could in that short period of time together. Even after all these life shaping lessons Naruto still didn’t feel ready to grow up without her. With each failure she would hold him up and through sheer presence alone fill him with the determination to overcome. After living through such care he felt like an addict already dreading the withdrawal.

The parting sorrow was true for Mito as well, while she did have faith in him she couldn’t help but worry. Naruto was her greatest legacy. Kushina would have been great too; she was gifted with intellect and will to lead the Uzumaki back to their glory, but the timing of the events to come had not been kind to both of them. Kushina had come to Konoha when Uzushiogakure was still standing strong it was because of this that when she was under Mito’s tutelage there had been no urgency or even need to make her the spearhead of the Uzu legacy. Mito was content to let her grow by herself and be whatever she wanted to be, but once the news of Uzu’s fall came everything had changed, Mito was out of time and Kushina was devastated.

Time was a cruel mistress. Mito had tried to delay the inevitable as much as she could but she had to pass on her burden and with no one to look after her leave Kushina to the wolves. The village refused her the opportunity to grow and live out her dream. Who would be willing to follow her as the Hokage if she didn’t have the experience and reputation to back it up; she was hidden from the world and denied the life of a kunoichi. She was a nobody and the scattered remains of her clan didn’t deem her strong enough to provide them shelter and peace.

When Mito met Kushina again years later she had changed too much; she had given up on her old dream and she was now content on passing the opportunity to her would be husband. She seemed satisfied with the idea of forever being in his shadow and was unwilling to even entertain the idea of fighting for the title of hokage. But Mito wasn’t disappointed at least not with Kushina because she had gone through something similar. After years of being married to Hashirama, she had come to appreciate her own slice of heaven surrounded by her growing family. Kushina had similarly given up her old dream to embrace a new one. She wanted a family and Mito could understand her; she only wished Kushina would find similar happiness as she did for the rest of her life. There was no shame in pursuing something short of being the best or being the strongest and want for something simpler in life.

But Naruto was different from them, he had no choice, he would be a shinobi and that was the end of it, he couldn’t choose to be a painter, a baker, a merchant, a doctor or anything else. He was doomed to be a shinobi from the day he was born because it was a shinobi who endured and endure he did. He was forced to carry the burden of the Kyuubi as it was thrust upon him without his knowledge, without his consent, and Naruto was left to live with the consequence of it. His whole life written by someone else; the world knew who he was and he would always have to face his status as the container of the mightiest beast, only in death would he be able to lay down this burden someone else has placed on him.

Naruto was already disillusioned with the world. Mito knew that forcing him would one day break him so she did what she believed to be the best; she trained him to be happy. The world they lived in would make it hard for him to live his life on his own terms, it would be a struggle for him to find his place and by the end of it if he was content… if he was happy he would already be great.

Sadly there were many like him unwittingly thrust into unending conflict but for whatever reason, she wasn’t sure, she couldn’t help but believe in him. He was her catalyst to create a world where children wouldn’t be reviled for carrying a burden, where people wouldn’t be shamed for choosing their comrades over the success of a mission, where genocide wasn’t given justification because the village was too strong and needed to be wiped out. She wasn’t there to die by her people and that was her greatest shame. Sometimes she could hear the voices of her kin asking where she was in their time of need. Her time was up and she was afraid of passing on to meet those she had outlived- her clan, her parents, her husband, her children, her grandchildren, and her little brother. She could still remember him following her around when he was little, wanting to spend time with her; Naruto resembled him greatly as did Kushina. She only wished that Naruto’s action no matter what they might be would allow her to face her clan and all those she had once sworn to protect but failed to do so.

She had told this to Naruto, all of it, she might have been unkind to place the burden such knowledge put on him. It might have been cruel to place such expectations on him, robbing him of his innocence, but she could not deceive him. She could not lie to him as she loved him too much. She loved him as if he was her own. She had tried to give him as much love and care as she could but she still felt fear and unease that he would see her using him as a tool; that her affection for him was false. So it was understandable that she had been unbearably happy when the boy, her wonderful boy, had claimed to understand her; his answer as to why was simple as it can be- because he loved her too.

And now here she was standing in front of him with only minutes left before she disappeared and it seemed that Naruto even after accepting the fact that she would be moving on could not help himself as tears again started leaking from his eyes, Mito slowly extended her hand letting it hover mere hair’s breadth away from his cheek as if gently cupping it, “Naru, remember what I told you, live your life freely and don’t be sad for too long after all your mother and I along with all the people of Uzu will be waiting for you to tell us about your life.”

“But… but I won’t see you again for a long time.” Naruto hiccupped rubbing his eyes furiously as if trying to stop himself from crying.

“True. You will be living a long and bountiful life but consider this, when you pass on our family will be together for eternity, and what have I told you about eternity?” She said gently coaxing him for answers trying to take his mind off the situation even if for a brief moment.

“That eternity is so long that life would appear to pass by in a blink of an eye.” Naruto mumbled.

“Right as always, that’s why you have to make the most of your time here and live a long life otherwise you would run out of stuff to tell us.” Mito said, although she herself had only very brief clues about the afterlife she knew her family would be waiting for her and so she similarly would be waiting for her child.

“I will live an awesome life then!” Naruto said with determination, his eyes blazing with resolve “but you have to keep your promise too that you won’t watch over me so I could tell you all about it firsthand.”

Mito chuckled softly, there it was, his odd request. He had made her promise that she won’t “watch over him” as he wanted to tell her all the stories of his life as she had told him hers. “I’ll stop myself from doing so and I’ll also try and stop Kushina too but you know her she might just sneak a peek.” She stated teasingly eliciting a watery chuckle from him. Sensing her strength fade she felt it was time to say her good bye, “Remember Naru always stand up for yourself and what you feel is right, don’t waste money but don’t be stingy either if it makes you happy I trust you to have good judgment and when the truth comes out about your furry burden don’t let it define who you are. You are a very brave, … kind and intelligent boy… that burden is only a very small part of you… be … proud… love… you…” towards the end her words started getting lost in the void but Naruto understood.

Over the years he had come to appreciate her even more as she had been the only one to equip him with the tools to survive. It was her honest confession that had solidified who he was as a person, if not for her he would have died long ago or worse succumbed to his demon. And now it would seem that the world had finally decided to confront him on his status, and it was time for him to fight back.

He looked around the area that was littered with blood and crystalline shards, toppled trees turned into husks, and remnants of mangled bodies lying not too far away; he had done well surviving till now but the longer the fight went on the more he was in danger of falling.

* * *

_**(Fifteen minutes before)** _

Naruto looked towards the source of the sudden barrage of shuriken. The fact they had targeted him rather than all of them or even one of his companions could be concerning if it was intentional.

“Surrender, Konoha-nin. You are trespassing.” It was the woman of the group that addressed them; all the while eyeing him up as if she was sizing him up as a threat. He could sense a feeling of caution from all of them.

Naruto looked at her closely, light blue hair done up in a spiky ponytail, pale skin, dark eyes, bright red lipstick; she looked to be the same age as Kurenai maybe a year or two younger, in her mid to late twenties. He started cross referencing anyone with similar characteristics in the bingo books but couldn’t find a match from his memory.

He didn’t try to get a closer look at the other four since they were obscured by the leaves and he couldn’t see their faces.

“We didn’t know this territory was under someone’s control, Konoha has an understanding with the sound’s daimyo about shinobi activity. From our perspective it would seem that you are illegally trespassing on our ally’s territory.” Izumo answered the question as if it was addressed to him. There was no need to give the enemy any indication to the team’s composition.

“Then you are severely misinformed. Sound is under the leadership of the Otokage; his authority given to him by the daimyo. So if you could please come with us we can sort this mess out.” she replied still staring at Naruto not even deigning Izumo important enough to look at.

What a load of horseshit Naruto thought, if they were as friendly as they tried to appear they wouldn’t have attacked first before announcing their presence not to mention even if Naruto wasn’t using his sensing ability he could clearly feel a sense of malice coming from the other four shinobi surrounding the woman. She was focused on him and that in itself was very worrying. He wasn’t in the bingo book and frankly hadn’t don’t any high profile missions, so as far as anyone else was concerned he was just a regular chunin.

“Do you seriously expect us to quietly follow you?” Kotetsu asked, dropping all pretence of going with this charade.

“Why not, it would seriously save you some trouble. Come quietly I don’t wish to waste my time here.” she said authoritatively.

Sensing that the situation would surely devolve into a fight, Naruto spoke up all the while calmly taking his hands out of his haori, letting it pool around his waist and tying the sleeves together. “We’ll have to decline. I don’t make a habit of following strangers.” He knew the fight would probably be rough considering the numbers disadvantage, and there was a slight chance that he might have to go all out so if he could help it he would like to avoid ripping his haori; the shirt he was wearing he was perfectly fine with ruining as it was a cheap one.

He placed his right hand on the hilt of his sword as he started flooding yang chakra into his arms and legs. He didn’t have the perfect control for it to not rip his body to shreds if he tried to sustain it for a longer period of time. He wasn’t as skilled in this technique as grandma Mito since it required more finesse and control but he was still perfectly capable of using it as a surprise attack.

He quickly dashed forward, even to the trained eyes of the kunoichi it left her with little time to react. Naruto in a blur of red and orange reappeared near her position in mid-air. Guren tried to jump back as she felt several cuts run through her body. She only saw flashes of cold steel and all she could hear were blood-curdling screams.

Naruto landed and jumped back to his previous position behind his teammates who by now had taken a defensive stance while one of them was going through hand signs. He had failed to take out the apparent leader of the group.

Guren quickly landed on the ground to see that the tree they had been standing on had been cut through in multiple places along with two of the shinobi closest to her severed into vermillion ribbons. The brat had purposefully targeted her, no doubt trying to take her out first. It infuriated her that two of her underlings had died on her watch. She had only survived the assault because of her crystal armour; it was something she had been wearing beforehand as a precaution. She quickly dropped the armour covering her body as it had been damaged. It was already quite restricting. The boy was fast but not to an extent where she would be unable to retaliate if she was alert. Her squad had been prepared to fight against a jinchuriki and all of them had been waiting for him to use the beast’s foul chakra and failed to consider that he would attack them with such fierceness without it. It seems that the information they had on him was not complete.

She had to take care of him before he became a threat to Orochimaru-sama’s plans for razing Konoha.

She saw a jet of water flying towards her position quite rapidly; extending her hand she used her bloodline to quickly start crystallising the water into the shape of a dragon, and wrapped it around her in case there was something else coming towards her direction concealed in its shadow. Sensing that the enemy had been caught off guard by her manoeuvre and failed to press the advantage she launched it towards the shinobi who had dared send a water jutsu towards her before they recovered.

**_“Crystal Release: Raging Dragon”_ **

Naruto was already impressed that the woman had survived his attack, but this was absurd; halfway through his strikes he had felt the feedback of his attacks to be wrong and switched his target to the other two shinobi near her position. If he had a greater mastery of his sword he was certain he would have cut through her too. As he landed he felt mild pain shoot up through his body; a few more seconds and he would have torn his muscles. He felt regret at the thought that he had killed someone yet again. It was such a waste to claim life when if he were just a bit stronger he could have captured them. He quickly dismissed that thought as it was because he was weak that he shouldn’t care for the lives he took, at least not now.

He tried to regulate the pain his limbs were feeling as he saw Izumo already at the end of his four hand seals sequence and releasing a high pressured jet of water from his mouth. He used his senses to determine where the other two surviving shinobi were. It seemed they were still recovering from running away from his initial assault. The kunoichi was obviously the major threat and he supposed it would be better for them to take her out quickly. He prepared himself to go on and try engaging her in closed quarters.

What he was not prepared for was the kunoichi to use some form of ninjutsu to turn the raging water into a pink crystalline dragon. He remembered seeing something similar just moments before with those shuriken he had cut before. ‘ _Bloodline?_ ’ He wasn’t sure if it was a bloodline or not as it could easily have been a Hiden like the Yamanaka’s mind technique or something similar to his Uzumaki techniques; a specialised usage of Yin or Yang natured chakra.

He saw the dragon like construct rush towards their position. Feeling that Izumo and Kotetsu would more than likely be unable to move out of the way he quickly sent a burst of yin natured chakra into the set of seals and the corresponding formula on his back releasing six golden chains ripping the back of his shirt to shreds.

**_“Adamantine Chains”_ **

He quickly sent two of them forward, winding them around his two companions’ waist and yanking them out of the way of the devastating jutsu that was carving out a path of destruction in its wake. Seeing the crystalline dragon slightly curve its path towards him he had no choice but to grit his teeth and try to withstand its assault. Seeing no other choice he flooded his sword with Yang chakra to strengthen it. Iron in elemental nations was not of great quality as generally contained too much carbon in it which in return made the blades made forged from the material to be too brittle. He had hammered thousands of layers into his sword to take out the excess carbon but even then while the sword was very sharp it still would easily chip if he cut anything incorrectly.

He used the flat section of the blade above the ridge-line to try and stop the dragon from impaling him and felt his feet starting to drag. He tried to hold his ground by planting his feet using chakra but soon his body started to hurt from the strain, so he released his hold making the jutsu carry him back a great distance and start digging into his body. Naruto used one of his chain to latch on to a tree branch and retracted it carrying his body towards it, but the momentum of the crystal jutsu had been too great causing him to swerve off and fly into another tree with enough force to topple it.

He felt his insides churn from the force of the impact, and he could taste the coppery taste of blood filling his mouth but thankfully it was a minor injury. The crystal dragon had been too strong and yet he still wasn’t completely sure whether it was a bloodline or not. Yin and Yang chakra were very illusive in their nature and unlike the elemental chakra could produce a multitude of effects, like projecting corporeal objects similar to his chains. It could very well be that the technique she was using turned water release into those crystals.

Or it could be that it was a bloodline that could create crystals. Only with her using it more would he be able to figure it out.

He stood up and quickly dashed back to the place where the conflict was taking place. He could sense that the two enemy shinobi had returned and were engaging Izumo and Kotetsu while their leader the kunoichi was standing back; her attention drawn towards his direction. They were getting overwhelmed against the assault and sooner or later would be out of commission.

Until he knew more about the kunoichi’s technique it would be unwise to use water ninjutsu. He readied himself by using small amounts of his chakra. It provided a lesser boost in invigorating the body than the more potent yang one and was a very basic technique every ninja not on his way to gain proficiency in taijutsu employed to perform super human feats. He was using this inferior technique than the better yang one because somehow his body was always in imbalance with itself; the yang chakra always being harder to control as if he had an excess of it; which didn’t quite make sense to him, as a person always had to have a balanced yin and yang to function correctly otherwise they would be crippled.

* * *

Kotetsu stood up from the sprawled position he had found himself in after he had been hurled out of the way by Naruto using his chains; he was very thankful to him for that, and he was also very much thankful for the fact that his vest had prevented the barbs from the chains from injuring him, _‘and people said it was ugly and cumbersome, idiots’_. He had not expected Izumo’s jutsu to be turned towards them in such manner and had failed to react to it.

Quickly scanning his surroundings he deduced that Izumo was fine and was doing the same as him. He had seen Naruto try and face the jutsu head on and it had sent him flying out of sight. He was slightly worried for his safety but with the knowledge of what Naruto was he guessed he would join them in no time.

He quickly made his way towards Izumo and took out his other weapon, his half of a pair- a kunai blade about a meter in length. Izumo seeing this pulled out his own from his sealing scroll connecting his at the end with his kusari. They stood at an angle to each other as they watched the kunoichi, waiting for her to make a move. Usually they would start with Izumo using water jutsu to cover his assault but seeing what she was capable of with the water technique they decided to take a more reactionary approach and hold her off before Naruto came back. It wouldn’t do to rush in when she still had reinforcements hiding.

Oddly enough the kunoichi didn’t move to attack them. That was weird. She seemed to be looking towards the direction Naruto was sent flying. He stiffened when he felt people coming towards them.

“Do you see Uzumaki anywhere, Hibiki?” The woman asked addressing the newer arrivals.

One of the opposing shinobi pulled their mask down. It was a woman and since she was dressed in a similar fashion to the others it had been hard to tell. Aside from the woman who had been addressing them, all of the others had their faces covered with black masks with a metal plate stitched to their foreheads with an inscription of a musical note engraved on it. They wore rather bulky grey garbs that obscured any indication if the person wearing them was a male or a female. The only thing remaining were the scarfs wound around their neck in white and black patterns. Kotetsu very much doubted that they were trying to imitate a cow’s hide.

The kunoichi, Hibiki, using her fingers whistled a shrill sound and a moment later answered.

“He’s about 100 meters in that direction Guren-sama. He’s still moving.” She answered pointing in the direction Naruto was thrown by the crystal technique.

“They know about Naruto. This isn’t good.” Izumo whispered quietly. 

Kotetsu could only nod at the statement. He wasn’t sure how much information they had about Naruto but if they knew of his status as the container of the kyuubi and were still willing to confront them then it only spelled trouble, never mind the fact that Naruto had never shown any indication that he could use the Kyuubi’s power effectively.

“Take care of them.” Guren said abruptly to her two subordinates.

“Yes, Guren-sama.” They answered before lunging towards their enemies, brandishing a kunai held in their dominant hand. As they clashed it quickly became abundantly clear that Izumo and Kotetsu were easily superior to their opponents when fighting in combination with each other. Both of them had been in the same team for years and knew each other’s moves like the back of their hand, so it would have been an easy fight if not for two major reasons. The first being that the enemy while having similar physiques to their own were physical superior to them, absurdly so; the second reason was that the enemy leader, Guren, had started hurling shuriken made out of crystals towards them providing support to her subordinates.

Dodging the hail of shuriken Kotetsu discreetly formed a single hand-sign using his left hand and cast a minor genjutsu on the area around him about a few meters in diameter. Its function was simple, to warp the sense of distance for the person looking from the outside. It would provide more breathing room for them.

Izumo gritted his teeth as he felt his arm buckle from the pressure exerted by the small kunai of the enemy colliding with his larger one. He had to use both of his hands to stop his guard from breaking. He at least found solace in the fact that Guren was suddenly missing her shots, no doubt because of Kotetsu’s technique, but he knew it wouldn’t last for long. Either she would realise that she’s caught in a genjutsu and break it or she would start correcting the course of her shuriken. He knew the mechanics of working with genjutsu even though he was not proficient with them. If you are facing someone stronger than yourself you have to layer your illusions, starting small and building them up in strength otherwise your opponent would realise they are caught in one before breaking them. They were spared from figuring out their next move as Naruto came charging in and engaged the leader of the opposing group.

Seeing that their opponents were distracted both Izumo and Kotetsu ran away. They quickly stopped after leading their opponents a fair bit away from Naruto so he could focus on the kunoichi. They would have to try and work together if they wanted to win this fight. Izumo passed the other end of his chain to Kotetsu so he could link his end of the blade to it, joining both of their weapons together. They ran forwards and engaged both of their respective enemies making sure to keep the chain slack. Weaving through attacks Kotetsu waited for an opportunity to strike. Seeing the shinobi in front of him winding up his arm for an overhead swing he flipped back towards his teammate trusting him to protect his back and went through a couple of hand signs rapidly to cast a genjutsu at the shinobi he had been fighting.

Turning towards the kunoichi he and Izumo ran towards her with their linked blades in hand. They moved around her making sure to dodge her strikes, dancing in and out of her swings.

Hibiki was getting frustrated with the situation she couldn’t use her jutsu when the two of the Konoha scum were sticking so close to her. She saw that her partner was walking around as if he was drunk and realised that he was under an illusion. “Hideki you idiot you are caught in a genjutsu.” She shouted towards the bumbling idiot that was her partner.

Seeing the kunoichi momentarily distracted Izumo and Kotetsu moved in and coiled their chain around her to bind her in position. Kotetsu tugged his end of the chain to keep her contained and signalled his partner to finish the job.

Izumo stabbed his blade into the ground to help hold the kunoichi before pulling out a kunai to stab her. Seeing him advance the kunoichi desperately built up her chakra, emptying more than half of her reserve in the process, and shrieked sending out a powerful sound wave blasting him away. She maneuvered her hand to get a hold of the chain and started tugging.

Izumo stood up dazedly and started making hand signs as quickly as he could seeing that Kotetsu was kneeling and barely holding onto the kunoichi, he looked to be using chakra to hold his ground. As he reached his last hand signs he felt his cheeks bulge as turbulent water filled his mouth.

**_“Water Release: Water Bullet”_ **

Kotetsu watched as a single giant water bullet, courtesy of his companion, race towards Hibiki and knew it was the end for her; even if she didn’t die she would be incapacitated. He felt his relief evaporate as he heard the distinct mocking voice of their enemy.

**_“Crystal Release: Crystal wall”_ **

He watched the water bullet smash into the wall before exploding; he barely had the time to register Guren’s presence when he felt a strong tug on his chain. Moments later he was brutally slammed into the crystal wall. He felt his vision grow dark as white hot pain shot up from his thigh. He had felt the pain numerous times in his career so much so that even in his muddled state he knew his leg had been punctured.

* * *

**_(Moments earlier Naruto's side)_ **

Seeing her trying to tag his teammates with her shuriken, Naruto rushed towards the kunoichi and even before reaching the range of his sword sent his chains towards her in varying curved paths trying to impale her with the bladed kunai like ends attached to them. The kunoichi already sensing his movement went through several hand-signs, **_“Crystal Release: Giant Hexagonal Shuriken”_** conjuring a large jade-green crystal shuriken, resembling snowflakes, several meters in diameter throwing it towards him, the shuriken moved on the ground as if it was a wheel of a cart, coming to resemble a disc due to its rapid rotation easily pushing aside his chains. Naruto quickly jumped sideways and out of the way of the attack before he started rushing forward; it would seem that fighting at longer distances would be very disadvantageous to him the notion quickly made clear as he saw from the corner of his eye the shuriken he had evaded cleaving through trees and showing no sign of stopping. He reached her and swung his sword expecting her to dodge the blow.

Guren calmly created a set of blue blades around her forearm and blocked the strike using her left hand. She quickly thrust her other hand forward to stab him in the stomach.

While Naruto was not expecting her to block his strike by seemingly creating weapons out of thin air he wasn’t so unskilled with his sword to be so easily subdued by someone just because they were wielding weapons with both hands. He turned his body slightly to avoid the strike all the while twisting his blade so that the flat side of his sword came to rest on the edge of her amethyst blade. He moved his arm letting his sword skate forward and launched it towards her head. Guren’s eye widened and she hastily ducked under the strike and quickly kicked from her position. Naruto jumped back before the kick could hit him and sent one of his chains to wrap around the offending leg before trying to drag the kunoichi towards him.

Guren tried to summon her crystals around her leg to try and encase that weird chain and shatter it. The small spikes on the links of the chain were digging into her flesh, drawing blood. As soon as she tried moulding her chakra around her leg and the chain, she felt it leave her, as if it had been siphoned out through the chain. She was already livid with the thought of being injured by the boy. Seeing no choice she kicked the ground with her other leg hurtling herself towards him. Positioning herself in a manner so that she was facing him, she created a large blue lance around her arm that was several meters in length easily towering her frame before lunging forward. Oddly the technique seemed to take far more chakra to create than she had estimated.

**_“Crystal Release: Crystal Lance”_ **

Seeing the gigantic cone of sharp crystal coming towards him Naruto used the chain connecting him to the kunoichi to try and alter her path. It seemed that he was not quite successful as his opponent, realising that she was going to miss she whipped her arm around in a sweeping motion. The lance hit Naruto in his midriff and shattered on impact sending him flying through multiple trees.

Fortunately for Guren through this exchange it seemed that the chain binding her leg had loosened and she had avoided being dragged along with Naruto. She landed on the ground and winced as she felt searing pain shoot up from her injured leg. She quickly encased her leg with crystals to make a makeshift splint for herself.

It would seem that without using her crystal armour it would be unwise for her to fight him in close range. Now that she had time to settle her thoughts before Naruto came back, as she was sure he wasn’t out of the fight yet, she remembered that she had heard Orochimaru-sama mention something about those chains, he had recovered a scroll about it from somewhere, it was incomplete but from what she could recall it was one of the strongest tool one could employ when it comes to using sealing and its complimentary techniques. He had been fascinated by the complex jutsu but after sometime had shelved the idea of using it as it required an Uzumaki’s physique. So if she was correct in her assumption then Naruto Uzumaki could very well be versed in the art of sealing and anything related to it. That was a worrying thought as not many people used such techniques in combat and if her opponent could then it would be troublesome as she had no idea of its limits. Seals and such worked on very esoteric knowledge their application too varied to predict by those who didn’t study the art.

Naruto coughed up blood, he guessed he wouldn’t have been in luck the second time to escape with small injuries. He felt constant pain shooting throughout his body, looking at his chest he saw that it was littered with cuts. Frankly he didn’t have the time to address his wounds and while it wasn’t anything fatal, he could easily survive such wounds, it was concerning because it was when he started losing too much blood that problems started cropping up, problems normal people did not have the pleasure of knowing. He could already feel noticeable amounts of vile chakra bleeding into his system. He hated whoever had designed his seal as it was too loose for his taste. He wasn’t hurt enough to be debilitated and the seal was already feeding him chakra actively. It was already hard enough to maintain enough control over his chakra when his reserves grew at an alarming rate because the seal was pumping him with Kyuubi’s chakra; to maintain even a modicum of control when it was mixing actively with his system was a nightmare. He stamped down on his anger as losing control over his emotions would only open the gates more. He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly repeating the process a few times and felt the invading chakra taper off to a trace amount.

He concentrated on his senses having been neglecting them through his fight to focus more on his opponent; now that he had some room to breathe he wanted to make sure his teammates were fine. His priority was to them and their safety rather than finishing off his enemy. He cursed when he felt the kunoichi move towards their direction and sprinted to their location already forming a plan of sorts to secure their safety. There was one good thing about this exchange though- he was now certain the crystal technique was a bloodline. ‘ _Water and Earth’_ he mused.

* * *

Guren walked forward after saving her subordinate with a crystal wall and started preparing another jutsu to take care of the other remaining pest, the one with the water techniques, before her real target made his way back. She was still thinking about how pleased Orochimaru-sama would be if she captured an Uzumaki jinchuriki until she was broken out of her musings as she felt the air around her dry up. She could even feel her lips crack as she instinctively licked them and felt her skin rough up from a lack of moisture. She turned quickly and was greeted with the sight of humongous serpent like creature made of water making its way towards her. She watched as it continued to grow in its size draining water from its surrounding, the neighbouring trees appeared to be turning into empty husks, crackling and crumbling with the slightest breeze and even the ground seemed to be drying up. Behind the large frame of the serpent she could barely make out the figure of Naruto. As she braced herself to confront the technique what stood out to her most at the moment, even at such a great distance, was the little flecks of red appearing and disappearing in the jinchuriki’s eyes like little fireworks.

**_“Water Release: Great Serpent’s Assault”_ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before anything thanks for reading my fic and leaving kudos. I really appreciate the support and if you have any questions or anything feel free to leave a comment.
> 
> These are things that I had to do research on and I thought I'd post them at the end to give people a general idea about them. (These will still be further explored in the story) 
> 
> Hiden (Literally meaning: secret tradition) or simply "secret" techniques are passed down from generation to generation in certain regions or clans. Like- Nara shadow jutsu, Akimichi expansion jutsu. Most use Yin and Yang release. They are different from Kekkei Genkai and can be taught to anyone. (source Naruto wiki)
> 
> Crystal release being a combination of water and earth. I know Water and earth make wood release but I couldn't find a combination for crystal release apart from earth. But in the novel Akatsuki Hiden Mud release exists and is a combo of water and earth so i went with it. How it is achieved and why the combo can make different releases would be later explored in my fic (my interpretation).
> 
> At the end of the next chapter I'll post another note on my release schedule.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is part of a dual release so please make sure you have read chapter 6 before proceeding.

Naruto quickly rushed towards his teammates. He was quickly realising that being overly dependent on a single nature transformation was not ideal. He truly didn’t have any long range techniques aside from his water release. Seeing no other choice he concentrated within him, on the flow of his chakra as he started moulding it and went through a couple of hand signs. He had to tune out a large portion of his senses because he was using a very complex technique and was unwilling to use as many hand signs as was required. To him chakra was never a problem but lack of time was.

Extending his hand he formed small orb of flowing water in front of him. It grew a bit before cracks appeared on its surface revealing a small serpent. It quickly uncoiled itself before it moved forward, towards his enemies gaining strength as it drew water from its surrounding; the technique was quickly gaining mass and a more defined form. As he neared his teammates’ location he winced at the feeling of his senses getting assaulted by Kotetsu’s distress from feeling pain and confusion.

Quickly entering the clearing just behind his water jutsu he saw Izumo’s prone form bleeding and their enemies advancing forward towards them. Naruto grit his teeth; from the rapid changes of emotions he had felt from the people gathered in front of him he could tell that it was his opponent’s action that had caused Kotetsu’s injury. If he had done his part of the job correctly his teammates wouldn’t have suffered. He quickly made a clone by spitting some water from his mouth and before it could dissolve and get assimilated into his other technique he bit his thumb drawing blood and going through another set of hand signs. He slapped his hand on his clones back before letting it run forwards, straight into the turbulent shape of his serpent.

Guren braced herself and let the jutsu advance on her, she was injured and wasn’t quite confident that she would be able to outrun it. If this technique worked anything like the famed dragon inspired ones it could be somewhat remotely controlled. She started trying to crystallise the serpent well before it made contact with her and through her effort she realised that unlike other water techniques she had faced in her lifetime the chakra in this one was far too dense, far too active… far… too… lively? She didn’t know how to describe the feeling, she did not have the advance capability to sense chakra to such a level to distinguish it, but even then she could feel that the water construct felt alive. As her hand came into contact with the head only half of which she had been successfully capable of converting, the force of the technique pushed her back; she redoubled her effort by pumping more chakra only for the unthinkable to happen. She felt her hold on her crystals falter and shortly the beautiful crystalline head exploded.

All she could see at the moment was a row of large jagged teeth, easily the size of her entire arm, shimmering in the glow of her crystals, appear in front of her. Panicking, she quickly summoned her crystal armour to such a thickness that she didn’t think she would be able to move because of it. She was thankful that in her haste she put more chakra into the technique than she normally did as she heard a sickening crunch and saw the teeth nearly pierce through.

After a brief period of trying to tear through her defences, she watched the thing give up and slither away and loosely coil around the three Konoha Nin; it seemed in the chaos of the situation Uzumaki had retrieved his teammate. The animal protectively coiled around him and his team was quite large, not as large as some of the summons of her lord and now that she saw it clearly it was quite different from a snake although if she wasn’t so intimately familiar with snakes she wouldn’t have been able to make that distinction. It was dark black in colour with rough scales on its back with a longer narrower snout than a snake’s, it looked similar to an alligator albeit a limbless one.

Naruto gently passed the unconscious body of his injured companion to Izumo and said, “Take him and make your way towards Konoha I used a technique on the wound but his life might still be in danger. I’ll cover your escape.”

“What about you? We can’t just leave you here.” Izumo asked frantically. At the moment he felt very conflicted he could see that Kotetsu’s wound wasn’t bleeding but it was very large with small shards of crystal embedded around the opening. Normally he would be worried that the small pieces would enter his bloodstream but it appeared as if the blood was forcefully being kept in place by the web of writing that was put on top of the deep hole. But he also didn’t want to leave Naruto behind.

Sensing his distress Naruto slightly turned towards Izumo and gave him a reassuring smile, “Don’t worry about me I’ll just reverse summon myself out of here. I can’t take you with me so it would be better if you leave first.” He tried not to grimace at the lie he was telling but he was the team’s leader. He might be lazy when it comes to doing any of the boring work like collecting resources or intelligence but the safety of his team was his responsibility and there was no way he would shirk on that job. Naruto passed Izumo a scroll, “Here take this counter formula, apply it only when you reach a medic, but make sure they have examined the wound before you do so and if Kotetsu’s low on chakra force feed him a chakra pill.”

“Okay.” Izumo said still worried. He carefully put the scroll inside his vest pocket before once again turning towards Naruto, “Be safe though, we’ll be waiting for you in Konoha.”

Nodding Naruto turned towards his summon, “Itou-san, I would like your assistance. We’ll be covering their retreat. Make sure they don’t pursue them.”

The serpent now identified as Itou looked at Naruto for a moment before it said hesitantly “As you wish young master.”

Izumo secured Kotetsu on his back making sure not to jostle him too much before he ran as quickly as he could. He had faith in Naruto to keep the pursuers off his back. The only thing he could do now was quickly make his way back to the Konoha outpost near the border to get Kotetsu some medical help and hightail his way to report to the hokage. Hopefully Naruto would be able to reach Konoha before he did.

Naruto watched the enemy ready to react at any second. He was perplexed when one of them, the crystal user, stopped the other two from pursuing.

“Hibiki, Hideki stop. Let them go.”

“But Guren-sama-” The kunoichi Hibiki tried to protest.

“Enough. They are unimportant.” Guren cut in with a severe tone.

So they were after him, Naruto thought, well he had already guessed that from the whole encounter he just wasn’t sure of the reason for their interest. Was it because he was a jinchuriki or was it because he was an Uzumaki or maybe it was something else. Even then he couldn’t fathom why they would let the others go. Weren’t they afraid that the knowledge of his capture would bring forth the whole might of Konoha upon them?

“So what do you want from me exactly if you tell me maybe I could help you out.” Naruto said rather conversationally. On the inside he was furiously thinking of a plan to make his escape. He was sure that even in a one on one fight against the kunoichi, Guren, he would be hard pressed to win. She had an impressive defence, her crystal jutsu was very versatile in mid to long range and she would be easily able to counter his water techniques. Most of what he had learned from the fight was that he had only been successful because she had not been expecting him to fight as he did, and now there were three of them to watch each other’s backs.

“Don’t pretend to not know Uzumaki, a smart boy like you surely would have figured it out by now.” Guren said, “But I’ll take you up on your offer you just have to come with us, my lord would be very interested in meeting you.”

“You’re giving me too much credit. I can’t think of a reason why someone so important would be so interested in a nobody like me.” Naruto said offhandedly.

“Well, why not? Your mere existence is very interesting Naruto Uzumaki, having a biju sealed inside of you since birth would have done wonders to your body.”

“Oh, so you were after my body all along and here I thought we had something special. But I like you so how about you tell me who your lord is and I’ll make an exception for you.” Naruto said grinning, inwardly though he was put off by the fact that someone outside the village knew of his status as the jinchuriki and in such detail. It was too soon in his opinion; he was still not strong enough to stand against the others that were like him. Apparently the jinchuriki of the Hachibi along with the Mizukage who was the holder of the Sanbi were perfectly in control of their beasts. He had no idea how they had done it, so he had to become stronger than them using his own skills, people before him had challenged the beasts unassisted and prevailed so there was no way he wouldn’t be able to do the same.

“Well if you come with us you would naturally meet him, I don’t want to spoil the surprise.”

Naruto knew he couldn’t get anything more out of her. He sensed Guren’s senses shift from deceit to a more sinister intent. She very quickly bought her hands together.

**_“Crystal Release: Amethyst Prison”_ **

Feeling the build-up of chakra under his feet he tried to move. The foreign chakra was latching on to him, preventing him from lifting his foot. Naruto sent his chains towards the ground stabbing them in equidistant positions and siphoning the chakra out of it, effectively halting the technique.

Seeing the technique fail Guren went through a couple of hand signs before sweeping her hands forward. Several shuriken made of blue crystals the size of her palm appeared around her spinning with an uncanny speed.

Naruto jumped onto the head of his summon, which was easily large enough for him to do so comfortably, before taking out his sword and rapidly cutting through the hail of shuriken that would cause him harm leaving the rest to fall ineffectively on the back of the serpent’s thick scales as it advanced forward. The other kunoichi, Hibiki, seeing them approach quickly went through some hand-signs of her own before pressing both her hands around her neck and shrieking.

Naruto felt a wave of dizziness overwhelm him and felt his foothold on the summon weaken. He was sent flying when his serpent shrieked in agony before it charged towards the noise. He sensed someone advancing on his position. He barely blocked the fist from connecting to his face using his arm. The force of the blow was so great that he was slammed into the ground creating a small crater.

Naruto quickly flipped out of the crater seemingly unfazed by the attack, but he was sure that normally he would have sustained serious injuries from the fall. He could feel himself growing stronger and faster. The world was growing brighter and more vivid by the moment but he could feel his mind growing darker, screaming to unleash untold destruction. He let out a breath but this time he wasn’t as successful in calming himself as before, his frustration was mounting.

He saw Guren perform another technique. _‘This is getting annoying.’_ He had already realised that any distance between them was far too advantageous for her but he couldn’t charge in blindly as her crystals were deadly for him to take head on and he was unsure whether he could cut through her thicker ones. He jumped backwards as she slammed her hands on the ground.

**_“Crystal Release: Growing Crystal Thorns”_ **

He watched beautiful pink crystal grow beneath his feet; pumping chakra into his legs he jumped again using the crystals as footing. To his surprise the thorns split chasing his ascent. He hastily turned his body to prevent getting impaled. The technique continued to grow in size, creating more and more branches, dividing again and again as if a malevolent tree made to cause him harm. Seeing no choice he used his chains for more manoeuvrability, yanking himself out of the way and swinging through the gaps. He knew that it was an up-hill battle sooner or later he would be caught, and not a moment too soon he felt the intent of all three lock on to him. He wondered where his summon was.

As if providing an answer to his thoughts he saw a large chunk of earth being hurled towards Guren out of nowhere forcing her to direct her attention elsewhere. He also registered the incoming punch from the shinobi, and multiple kunai being thrown from the screeching kunoichi.

Having exhausted every viable means he needed to outthink his opponent. He remembered his grandma’s advise-

_“Your mind is your greatest asset Naru. It will help you survive seemingly unsurpassable odds you just have to be creative.”_

Smiling maniacally he willingly took the punch to the face, trading the blow by plunging his sword through the shinobi’s heart. He felt his nose break and felt a few kunai dig into his back. Ignoring the pain he coiled his chains around the corpse of the shinobi and flung it towards the two kunoichi standing side by side. As he fell down with great speed he activated the botched up seal he had placed before curling his body inwards as he smashed into the sea of pink crystals moulding as much chakra as he could.

Guren watched Naruto kill another one of her subordinate; if the stupid animal hadn’t hurled a boulder towards where she had been standing she would have been able to manipulate her crystals to prevent that. She also watched him chuck the corpse in her direction, disrespectful little boy. Watching him fall into jagged crystals at high speed she thought the whole situation to be odd. Why didn’t he use Hideki’s body to cushion the blow?

Hibiki caught onto the body of her teammate and was about to set it down when she was met with a horrific sight. In a blink of an eye she saw black markings cover the entire body of her comrade, she tried to drop the corpse only to scream in horror as she found her hands stuck inside the body of her teammate up to her elbows. She tried to fight the strange pull coming from the seal but in mere moments half of her body was sealed inside, and all she could see were half formed walls and darkness before she felt her chakra starting to collapse in on itself.

In a flash of burning chakra the abomination of two mixing bodies exploded into a gory mess sending sharp fragments of bones everywhere. Guren felt the explosion hit her crystal armour and felt the pieces of bones leave numerous cracks all over it.

She shivered in disgust as she used her crystals to prevent all the flesh and blood from coming into contact with her skin. She saw a giant crater where her last remaining soldier had stood moments before. She had never felt so infuriated in her life, all her subordinates were dead, she was injured and all because the jinchuriki didn’t play by the rules. She and all her subordinates had prepared to fight a chunin level ninja who when cornered like every other of his type would simply rely on his beast for protection, but Naruto Uzumaki was far too wild. They were severely lacking on information and considering the fact that they had an inside source in Konoha, it was baffling how off the mark they were. The next time she met him, Kabuto would dearly pay for his incompetence.

She was sorely tempted to use her life force to enhance her crystal release and put an end to this but her body had been promised to Orochimaru-sama and she didn’t wish to weaken it. This had been the biggest struggle she had faced since her childhood; she had not faced such failure since she had started to serve Orochimaru-sama. If only she had struck hard and fast from the beginning the fight would not have turned out like this.

Resisting the urge to create a crystalline mirror to assess her appearance and make sure she wasn’t dirtied, she decided it was time to end it. Shattering the veritable sea of crystals inside which Naruto had disappeared into tiny particles she created a storm of sharp crystals trying to grind anything within their confine.

After sometime she let the jutsu die out, seeing the result she clicked her teeth in annoyance.

Naruto stood up from his position quickly concealing the two scrolls he had created. Looking at the giant serpent coiled around his body in protection he spoke, “Are you all right Itou-san.”

The serpent uncoiled himself and spoke, “It’s not too bad young master but I’m ashamed to say that I’ve run out of chakra.”

Naruto looked closely and suppressed a wince; the whole outer side of his companion was cut up with shards of pink crystal embedded into it. He quickly spoke, “Please go back and heal.”

“Are you sure.” He spoke with great hesitation, his eyes trained on the deadly kunoichi.

“Don’t worry I’ll be fine.”

“You have a plan?”

“An outline.” Naruto continued nonchalantly.

Hesitating for a moment the serpent nodded slightly before it poofed out of existence leaving Naruto all alone.

He looked around him taking in the beautiful destruction, the terrain was devastated with shards of crystals littering the torn ground and the tress were cracked and turned into husks as they lacked water to survive. He focused his attention to the only remaining member of the sound team, if the musical note on their headbands was any indication, he said cockily, “Well it seems we are the only ones left to the party. Your friends are kind of rude leaving you all alone.”

He was answered by a sudden barrage of crystal shuriken, jumping to the side he said, “Not in the mood to chat anymore?”

“You have already annoyed me long enough. I believe it’s time to finish this.” Guren replied blandly all her previous humour gone. “You won’t be able to escape.”

She knew the limitations of summoning contracts like the snakes and was sure that those applied here as well. She had a technique that could potentially imprison the jinchuriki- her crystalline labyrinth but she was reluctant to use it. It used too much chakra and she was quite reluctant to cage herself with a jinchuriki, her body was far too precious and if she left him in there all alone she figured he would sooner than later break out, the one thing that was common between every container of the beast was their propensity for destruction.

If only she could encase him and be done with it; to be pushed so far by someone a decade younger than her was embarrassing.

Naruto knew that he couldn’t just run away, Guren was at least as fast as he was and had an advantage in longer range. His sword mastery was inadequate and slow to deliver him a decisive victory. What he needed was a distraction. If only he could redirect her attention for a bit he could disappear. She was getting angrier and he hoped sooner or later she would give him an opening. Life would be so much easier for him if his summons had the ability to just reverse summon him out of here.

Naruto moved forward but his progress was immediately stopped by Guren as she sent a swarm of small crystal shards his way dense enough to obscure his vision. Pulling a kunai out of his holster he quickly attached an explosive tag to the handle and chucked it forward detonating it in the middle of the thick pink mist to break the technique. Obscured by the cloud of smoke and dust Naruto pinpointed Guren’s location through his sensing and was preparing to launch an assault but he was not prepared for Guren to come running towards him out of the smoke at an incredible velocity from an entirely different direction. She twirled around, completing full rotations when she neared him sending rings of crystals around her. The rotating saw like crystals cut into his arm. Naruto screamed in pain as he scrambled away from the spinning blade. He reflexively sent one of his chains towards her head piercing it. The body crumbled into a mass of pink crystals as if it was a broken statue.

Naruto jumped back and trained his sword in front of him to defend. He tried to move his left arm but the intense pain form it quickly put a stop to it. He could see that the attack had cut into the bone of his arm and every little movement was hurting him immensely. The Kyuubi was already pumping chakra into the wound trying to mend the damage, but Naruto felt that it wasn’t out of any kindness in his heart. He looked at the wound and knew even with its assistance it would take days for his arm to fully heal. He used one of his chain to wrap it around his injured left arm to keep it in place and forcefully move it if needed, and winced when he felt the links of the chain dig into his skin; if … no, when he got out of this mess he would make sure to figure out a way to modify his chains.

Expanding the range of his perception so as not to be ambushed he wasn’t expecting to sense another person apart from Guren near their location; the presence had the same muted emotions as his genin teammate, another one of his watchers.

_‘How the fuck?’_ Naruto was completely baffled.

Sensing no malice from the spy, he concentrated on Guren as the kunoichi presented a more immediate threat. He couldn’t reason out how he was unable to sense her clone; every clone he had encountered so far even the illusionary ones had some agency of their own. Unless it wasn’t a clone, he realised; just because it looked like her it didn’t mean it was a clone he would think more about it later. Right now he had to survive.

He braced himself as he heard the familiar sound of buzzing blades; he watched four giant spinning shuriken several meters tall advancing on his position each taking a slightly different route.

**_“Crystal Release: Giant Hexagonal Shuriken”_ **

Naruto quickly pulled out two scrolls from his back and used his chains to unfurl them in front of him letting them cross each other in the middle. He quickly went through a series of hand signs with his uninjured hand to adjust the formula on the scroll before activating them. _‘Water and Earth’_. Fuinjutsu was widely misunderstood by the common people as a very complex art; that was incorrect. Sealing was as the name suggested just that to seal and unseal anything. So if the concept was so seemingly simple, why was the Uzumaki clan so feared? Well it was because of the complementary techniques generally associated with sealing- ninjutsu, barrier ninjutsu and the most complex of them all Jutsu-shiki or technique formulas. Even his chains were a combination of the aforementioned three working in conjunction with his special chakra.

He watched as the kanji for earth appear in mid-air before it was quickly surrounded by several smaller characters denoting the element of water all of it enclosed inside a circle, several smaller characters defining the function of the technique by the way of a complex formula seem to spiral out from the centre creating a spiral web. The web continued to grow in its complexity and size until it was slightly larger than the oncoming attack. The giant green wheel of crystal coming towards him seemed to phase out as they came into contact with the wall of lines made of thousands of characters.

He saw the dumbfounded look on Guren’s face as the seal disappeared from view leaving no clue of the attack transpired. He could feel his face break into a giant toothy smile, stretching from ear to ear as he felt rush of excitement course through his body. He took out a piece of paper and placed it on the part where the two scrolls met. It was a small strip about a palm wide; he had yet to name it, everything he could think of somehow made it sound as if he was selling dubious ‘male enhancement’ medicine. This was one of the most advance formula he had created that let his clan technique of using Uzumaki chakra to take shape to the next level by copying the components of a sealed technique.

He poured his chakra into it with reckless abandon to quickly activate it. In a blink of an eye a similar spiral configuration of characters appeared in front of him in the air. It appeared seemingly indistinguishable from the previously conjured seal at least to those untrained in the art, but this technique was not a seal as it performed another function apart from unsealing its contents. It was a very complex ninjutsu and fuinjutsu combination. The technique again quickly grew into size but soon it surpassed its previous incarnation, before it was merely a couple meters in size now it seemed to tower over him.

Giant green shuriken wildly spinning appeared again only this time they were turned on their creator.

Guren watched in growing horror at the sheer size of her own attack. They were easily four or five times larger than she was capable of creating and yet despite their increase in size they still seemed to possess the same air cutting rotation they did before. She was having difficulty standing still as the wind being whipped by the shuriken was easily uprooting trees in the background. Biting her tongue to stop herself from letting a string of curses she started burning her life energy by opening two of her chakra points producing a visible aura of chakra surrounding her.

Using her enhanced chakra she started creating her strongest defensive technique.

**_“Crystal Release: Crystal Encampment Wall”_ **

Red crystals large enough to obscure the sky sprouted from the ground. The rotating shuriken struck the wall of crystals creating a deafening screeching sound. Guren continued pumping chakra into the technique mending any damage done to it. As she felt the fourth shuriken strike the wall she cut off her connection to the technique knowing that it would hold true, as its defensive capability rivalled the rashōmon of Lord Orochimaru.

She quickly scanned her surroundings to locate the jinchuriki. Seeing the signs of high speed movement she pumped her enhanced chakra through her body. It was a sign of her chakra becoming so potent that her movement was causing the wind around her to crack and whip up into frenzy. In mere moments she arrived near a river bed and saw Naruto kneeling on top of the water going through hand signs. Before she could react she saw him slam his hands on the ground. Anticipating an attack she prepared to crystallise the whole area.

She watched as a head of a serpent clearly bigger than the one before appear from underneath Naruto, its jaw wide open with rows and rows of teeth longer than the boy gleaming in the sunlight before they snapped close swallowing him whole and disappearing into the water. She rushed forward and peered in and watched helplessly as the dark silhouette of the gigantic beast grew smaller and smaller as it dove into the depths of the river.

She cursed and moved away from the river and powered down. She knew there was little chance of Naruto appearing here again not after going through all this trouble. Still she would make sure and assign some of her subordinates to guard this place.

_“Next time you won’t escape Naruto Uzumaki.”_

Naruto looked around the wriggling stomach of his travelling serpent; unable to find a flat spot he sighed and sat down. He looked at his clothing and frowned, despite his wishes his haori was torn to pieces along with his black under shirt. He created a clone by pulling some water out his surrounding and took off his clothes leaving him in his boxers.

“Bandage my wounds.” He addressed his clone while passing him some medical supplies he kept in a storage scroll.

Sitting down cross legged he tried to limit the flow of Kyuubi’s chakra into his body. He had used a fair bit of it in his earlier fight and knew he would have to pay the price for it later on. He didn’t think that his first ever encounter with a jonin unassisted would be such a struggle; well he didn’t count Aoi to be a full jonin. He had only fought two jonin before this and both of the time he had someone watching his back, once with his sensei and the other time with Kurenai providing a distraction. He might have overestimated his own abilities a bit. As he pulled in the vile chakra back into the seal he felt his body starting to hurt more and more. He just wanted to go to sleep but knew this wasn’t the place for it as he didn’t want to hurt his summon.

It was hours later, when the moon had taken the place of its warmer counterpart, closer to midnight that Naruto came out of his summon’s mouth. He was clothed in a traveller’s cloak to conceal his wounded appearance. The river his summon has used to travel ran from the fishing village of Makkari in Sound all the way to the neighbouring land of Hot Water. He made his way towards the nearby town, a small village lacking anything of note. The owner of the only inn in town that provided lodging to the travellers grumbled at the late night check-in.

Naruto quickly washed off the grime and blood from his body as best he could in his tired state. Quickly performing a summoning jutsu he summoned a familiar box in the room. After taking out his mother’s ring with a simple chain going through it, he closed the box and sent it back to where it came from.

Placing a couple of strips of paper containing a barrier formula linked to his body on the room Naruto chowed down on some military grade nutrition bar by gulping down as much water as he could to make it easier for him to swallow. He placed a paper seal on his chest; its sole purpose was to shock him awake by unsealing low powered lightning if activated. The shock was barely strong enough to be classified a D-rank technique.

He curled up in his bed wearing the chained ring around his neck and clutching it close to his heart as he knew the night was going to be rough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jutsu-shiki or technique formula is the mark that appears when summoning and also on the handle of the Hiraishin kunai. (Hiraishin is not fuinjutsu its a space time ninjutsu performed using these technique formulas) more will be explored in the fic later on.
> 
> As you can see the serpent summons are not op they are more or less as strong as the other four famous ones (monkey, slug, snake, and toad) well maybe not slugs (Katsuyu is op- apparently she easily towers over kyuubi and the others in sheer size alone the katsuyu in war arc is about 1/10th of her original size so theoretically if you can summon a full sized one it might just flatten konoha without doing anything.)
> 
> If you feel Guren was weak when compared to the anime(fillers) she is as this is happening 3 years before her anime appearance.
> 
> I got the name Itou from the second main character from one of my favorite manga (its his surname), i didn't use the main mc's name because then the summon would be too op because of the sheer awesomeness of the manga character.
> 
> I'll post chapter 8 in two days as editing takes a lot of time but after that for a month or two updates would slow down to maybe a chapter a month (I have an exam) after which I'll return to two chapters a month or so.
> 
> Anyways thanks for reading, feel free to leave any feedback the fighting scene was very frustrating to write, conveying action without writing every move is hard.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is part of a dual release.

_ Surrounded by trampled forests and burning buildings he looked down on the village. What he saw was an abomination, a legacy of warring brothers. Deceit and deception now turned to tools of the trade. _

_He opened his jaw wide and poured chakra into it creating an orb of destruction. The village had already failed in its belief of brotherhood. It had refused its allies. His clan forgotten, its children abandoned, preyed on by vultures._

_He had through countless years watched his father’s will warped into abominations by the descendants of his own sons. He brought its tail for protection as they were trying to hurt him using his father’s gift as weapons. They bombarded him with metal and fire. He unfurled his many tails, levelling the mountains and burying the forest._

_ He built up his chakra drawing it in before unleashing it in its raw fury on the people for sacrificing his happiness. Inside he cried, knowing they would never accept him as one of their own. His childhood shrouded with loneliness. _

_ They wanted to cage him again, tied to an altar with chains and nails, unmoving he would remain for years to come. Not this time, in their moment of weakness he would kill the vessel. He would be freed to roam the world as his father had intended. _

_ He blinked and looked down, the nails of his claw impaling a redhead. The woman looked into his eyes crying she asked- “Why Naruto? Why?” _

Naruto woke up screaming, his body twisting in pain, a red haze of foul chakra surrounding it. He quickly ripped the paper seal stuck to his chest to stop the continuous jolt of electricity from further hurting him; its purpose fulfilled, he was awake. Ignoring the pain as best he could he quickly sat down cross-legged on the bed, working furiously to reign in Kyuubi’s chakra. As he felt it lessen he used his own chakra to smother the rest of it before taking a deep breath in relief.

With some difficulty he stood up; it seemed his muscles and bones were still damaged from the previous night. Still, he would gladly take the physical pain than see his mother again in that form; those nightmares seemed to occur more frequently after he had used Kyuubi’s chakra. In his distress, he would call upon more and more of it leading to a vicious cycle. He knew it would be a while before he could get a peaceful night’s rest.

He made his way towards the window and looked out. The sun was barely peeking its head over the horizon. Yawning, he made his way towards the bathroom. _‘Barely four hours of sleep.’_

He looked into the mirror above the sink and winced in disgust. His nose was swollen and looked slightly crooked and he had a big bruise under his left eye. His whole face looked puffed up and purple. He moved his jaw to assess if anything was broken and to his relief, everything appeared to be functioning. Looking at his body all he could see, apart from the makeshift necklace of his mother’s ring, was layers and layers of bandages. It would seem his body would take two or three days to fully heal and be back to its full capability. He tapped the rhombus-shaped seal on his forehead. _‘Almost full’._ It was quicker than he had expected. Was his calculations off or could it be that he had made a mistake somewhere else.

Pondering the thought his eyes absently trailed down meeting their own image in the mirror, and in an instant, he was again staring at his mother, her eyes… his eyes… dead. Her last words questioning his innocence. Hastily he closed his eyes but the image as if burned into his mind popped up more vividly. Fumbling for the tap he quickly opened it letting the soothing sound of water wash over his senses. He caught a handful in his cupped hand and splashed it on his face trying to concentrate on the numerous beads trailing down, trying to savour the stark coldness of it. The effort his mind took focusing on every single trail helped him calm down.

Opening his eyes he again stared into the mirror mumbling to himself, “It was only a nightmare… she wouldn’t say that. It wasn’t your fault” He lost track of time as he assured himself that what he had seen was a dream and nothing more.

It was still early in the morning when Naruto left the town and made his way towards the capital. The city in question was one of the biggest tourist spots of Hot water- Ehime. He was in no condition to cross countries and make his way towards Konoha and he was more than willing to exploit his freedom for a while in a place where he was just one of the many.

* * *

Ino was lost, not in the sense a tourist would be in an unknown land; she was lost deep in her thoughts. It had been almost a week since Naruto had gone on a mission, and she had spent most of her time on training, studying, and taking an hour or two every day to try and spruce up Naruto’s shop. The later of her self-imposed endeavour was the problem that was occupying her thoughts. She couldn’t think of anything more to do since she had no money. She had great plans, but Ayame had been there to reel her in when she was going to go overboard in her excitement. Most of what she had wanted would have been very costly to implement. After painfully long negotiations they had managed to convince the carpenter, who was working on the display cases and the wood-brick flooring in the smithy, to carve out a simple inscription on the checkout counter. The shop still felt rather dull because that was all they had achieved.

She had been brainstorming on what to do about the lack of money for the past couple of days without coming up with a solution. It had been a far bigger issue than she had anticipated. Ayame had suggested creating something by hand and at first, she had been sceptical about it, that is until this very morning when Ayame came holding two vertical banners. They were made of deep red cloth with the Uzumaki clan symbol, in the shape of a spiralling flower, embroidered on it using rich blue and bright golden threads.

Now many would consider it that Ino was too focused on appearances, a very superficial thing to do, as substance mattered more than outward appearance, but she didn’t think so. After all her mother spent an hour or two daily in the morning positioning flowers and arranging them in beautiful patterns never-repeating her previous work, if she didn’t do so the customers would simply buy a pack of colourful flowers that did not require the Yamanaka family’s special touch to bring out more meaning to the arrangements. All of the little touches and the extra work her family did was the reason their shop was _the_ premium flower shop in Konoha. If Naruto wanted to attract high-end customers who were willing to pay the price for his work, his shop couldn’t look as shabby as it did now.

She was shaken out of her thoughts when she heard a commotion around her. Seeing a shinobi running towards her direction in a mad dash she hastily jumped out of the way.

She stared at the retreating back of the odd man and watched him disappear into the crowd. The whole thing was quite weird. The man judging from his clothes was probably a chunin or a jonin, as he was wearing the official vest given to a shinobi of such station; he was also wearing the typical navy blue attire that was the ‘official’ uniform of Konoha. He looked exhausted but he was running like a bat out of hell through the streets. What she didn’t understand was why he was not using the rooftops seeing as he was having trouble weaving through the crowd, hell if he was in such a hurry he should be using that flicker thing she had seen her father and Naruto do. Maybe he didn’t know the technique.

_ ‘So uncool. In front of people like him, even Naruto looks like he’s some badass awesome ninja.’  _ She mused. Naruto had promised to train with her after she became a genin; she would have to ask him to teach her that flicker thing. After all, she wanted to be an amazing kunoichi and didn’t want to look like an idiot running through the streets like a civilian. Her father would most likely decline, saying something along the lines of her not being ready. Naruto though was more readily inclined to help her if she asked nicely. 

She resumed her trek back home which was previously interrupted by the rampaging shinobi, if he had been just a tad bit slower Ino would surely have given him a piece of her mind.

As she entered the shop she smelled the distinctive smell of hundred of flowers, looking at the different plants she got an idea. She was going to gift Naruto some plants for his shop, but she didn’t want to ask her parents for them because it would be like asking them for help and she had decided that she was going to do this on her own. She hesitated for a moment, she had been growing some beautiful plants for a long time, some of them even for years and she loved every single one them. She had even named a few of them; a secret she was going to take to her grave. What if Naruto failed to take care of them, what if they died?

She huffed, _‘I’ll just have to make sure he takes care of them.’_ Making up her mind she went to the back of the store towards the greenhouse trying to decide which ones to take with her to the new shop. As she was scrutinising every single plant, for their suitability, she saw a few cans of paint lying in the corner of the shop. Seeing the unused cans she got an awesome idea, it would take some time and with the exams coming she would have to work harder but it would be well worth it. Well, she would make it worth it. She would milk the hell out of doing so much for Naruto.

* * *

Izumo ran as fast as he could. He felt dead tired on his feet as the exhaustion from the mission was catching up to him. He had been running non-stop only resting for an hour when he had to wait for the news about Kotetsu’s leg. The wound had been deep and it had been unclear if Kotetsu would ever be able to use his leg, thankfully the seal Naruto had placed on the wound had helped; it had been healing the wound unnaturally fast, it was also catching every stray bit of crystal shard that had made its way into his body, but Kotetsu had been exhausted and out of chakra by the end of it.

As he continued to run he suddenly felt a wave of dizziness hit him, causing him to almost lose his footing. Seeing no choice he pulled out a chakra pill and bit it in half. After swallowing, he stored the other half of the pill back into his vest. The pills tasted awful but they provided a temporary boost to the chakra reserve and staved of physical exhaustion, he didn’t eat the whole pill as it was not necessary since they exacted a heavy toll on the body.

After a while of running, he saw the great gate of Konoha appear before him. He quickly made his way to the guard post and showed them his identification and the mission directive with the Hokage’s seal. Without wasting time on pleasantries he pumped his feet with as much chakra as he could, which was a paltry amount seeing that even as the pill did provide him with a boost his mind was protesting any strain. He didn’t have it in him to jump up to the roofs either so he resigned himself to the streets. 

Entering the Hokage tower, Izumo addressed the pretty secretary, stationed outside the Hokage's office. “I would like to talk to Hokage-sama, it’s a mission emergency.”

Nodding, she pressed the button on the intercom, a welcome new addition to the office, and was permitted by the hokage himself to let Izumo enter.

“Ah, Izumo-kun you are back, seeing that you are alone without your team leader I assume there has been a problem?” Hiruzen asked seriously. At the moment the man looked very much like the leader he was.

“Yes sir, Kotetsu is getting treatment at the outpost and Naruto… sir he had to stay behind to cover our retreat. He said he would reverse summon out of the place but I’m still worried.” Izumo said hurriedly.

“Take a seat Izumo-kun you look dead on your feet. Let me call in some people before you give us all the details.” Hiruzen said calmly on the inside his mind was furiously working.

“Cat.” he called and shortly a purple-haired anbu appeared in front of him, “Find Shikaku and Inoichi. Tell them to come here, it’s urgent, and tell my secretary to send in some tea for Izumo-kun here.”

Nodding to the hokage, Cat disappeared from her spot. Hiruzen turned towards Izumo and said, “Relax Izumo-kun and try to recall all the details of the mission in the meantime.”

They only had to wait for about 10 minutes before Shikaku entered the room. He cast a cursory glance around the room and clocked two individuals inside it, the Hokage who was looking out the window and a chunin sipping some tea, Izumo, he recalled. “Inoichi is on a mission hokage-sama.” He said rather languidly before sitting on one of the chairs unprompted by the hokage. Inwardly he was slightly curious why he was called so urgently, if Choza had been called too he would have assumed it to be about the Ino-Shika-Cho connection, but it was only him and Inoichi that were called. He could only think of very few possibilities.

“Do take a seat Shikaku.” Hiruzen said in amusement before his expression turned serious, “I would have liked to have Inoichi here as well to gain more insight, but there’s nothing we can do if he’s on a mission.” He gestured towards Izumo before he continued speaking, “Izumo-kun here along with Kotetsu and Naruto had gone on a mission and there had been some complications. Give us a report about the whole incident Izumo-kun in as much detail as possible.”

It had been half an hour later that a still anxious Izumo left for the hospital to get a check-up and some rest, leaving behind the hokage and the jonin commander to deliberate on the situation at hand.

Shikaku looked at the hokage who seemed to be in deep thought. The man wasn’t giving anything away; his face was set in place, very much like the stone sculpture he could see a glimpse of just outside the window, and it was this side of him that clued Shikaku that something was wrong.

“So what seems to be the problem? You are not worried about their interest in him, are you?”

“No, I knew all along that the other villages had a suspicion about the existence of a jinchuriki after the leak. Jiraya with the help of the intelligence department and some anbu even tried to muddy the information by leaking false candidates. Thank god that Naruto didn’t inherit much of Minato’s appearance or it might have been a disaster.” He winced at the thought of a blonde haired blue eyed Naruto. At least his current appearance only burdened him as a survivor to a broken clan.

“Well, then what seems to be the problem? Is it about the summons, I just assumed those were Uzumaki clan’s contract or something after all the kid seems to pull out most of his abilities from there.” Shikaku could see how this could be a problem if the contract was not of Uzumaki origin; summoning contracts were very rare and even many of the major clans of Konoha such as his own did not have one.

“They are Uzumaki summons.” Hiruzen hesitated for a second in deliberation before speaking, “Do you know what is the difference between the toad and the slug or snake summons are? Or have you ever wondered why despite lacking a summon the size of a mountain the monkey summon are considered to be on par with the other three?”

Shikaku didn’t answer right away he closed his eyes and tried to recall everything he could about those summons; he had personally witnessed some of them in action and as the jonin commander had a lot of written information available to him. It was when he was sifting through the memories that he realised something. He couldn’t believe he had missed something so obvious, “The frogs and your monkeys, they have hands.”

Hiruzen gave him a brief smile and after taking a long puff of his pipe blew out a steady stream of smoke, “Correct as always Shikaku. The monkeys and to a lesser extent the frogs can use hand-signs, and I have had the honour of witnessing the serpents in action, and they like the snakes don’t have limbs.”

“So you are saying that they could not have reverse summoned Naruto out of the battlefield?” Shikaku said, all of his previous laziness gone. He didn’t have an amicable relationship with the redhead as Naruto always seemed to be wary of him, but he was still Shikaku’s student and for one reason or another Shikaku was very much concerned about him.

“Not to the extent Naruto had told Izumo. Even if he left for his summon’s realm he would reappear at the exact same place he left or he would have to travel back from his animal’s realm to Konoha on foot.” Taking his time to think of a way to explain the workings of the jutsu without giving up too much he continued, “There needs to be an anchor for this type of jutsu. In Konoha Naruto is one, and thus he could summon animals to his side by using the summoning formula, while on the summons side those who have agreed to partner with him have access to the contract scroll to bring him to them. If Naruto leaves for their realm wherever it might be then there is no anchor here to bring him back it’s basically how Hiraishin works, Tobirama-sensei took the space and time folding aspect of summoning and found out a way to summon himself without delay.” Hiruzen said.

Shikaku listened carefully before asking, “Still, would it not be better to just leave for the summoning realm and make his way here by foot.”

“If only it was that easy, almost every summoning realm is located somewhere very treacherous and inaccessible. Otherwise the great nations would have tried to conquer them already.” Hiruzen said while looking thoughtful, before addressing Shikaku, “That’s why I wanted both you and Inoichi here so I could understand Naruto’s actions a bit more.”

“Well, he is very responsible so it wouldn’t be a surprise if he lied to his teammates to get them to safety, but from what I know about him, he is also very resourceful so it’s a tossup if he managed to escape.” Shikaku said understanding his presence. His mind was working furiously to predict the outcome of the battle but frustratingly he had very little information on Naruto’s ability as well as the enemies’. After some thought, he replied, “I suggest sending a team of anbu to retrieve him.”

Hiruzen nodded, “I think so too, I’ll leave it up to you to form a team and send them after Naruto, but make sure they head to the same border outpost Naruto visited during the mission. If he had escaped he might send a message there as the protocol dictates. I don’t want him to find out that we sent anbu after him if possible.”

Shikaku groaned audibly. He understood the reasoning and very much agreed with it but handling anything related to his former student was always so goddamn troublesome.

* * *

It was early in the afternoon when Naruto arrived outside the gates of the capital and entered the bustling city by providing the relevant documents. While he did not have the hokage’s signed letter that would be required to enter another major hidden village, Ehime was a tourist spot and a capital of a minor hidden village so thankfully he didn’t need to sneak in.

He didn’t have much time as he was sure the hokage would send someone to look for him but frankly, he didn’t feel fit enough to travel alone. He also had another major reason for going to the capital- Aoi, he was injured and while the wound was light, it was hastily patched up. He wanted to make sure his prisoner didn’t die in his care. 

He quickly made his way towards the market. When Naruto was promoted, he like every other fresh chunin was given an information package. It was in there that he was introduced to the various information brokers Konoha employed within its neighbouring allies. He knew this person wasn’t by any means a deep-cover spy working for Leaf, as that level of information was very much in a need to know basis, but it was the best Naruto could do at the moment. He didn’t have access to a messenger bird as they were very hard to train and only given to infiltration specialists, and certain elite jonin. This particular broker was more like an embassy, and he was pretty sure the upper management of Hot Water knew of its existence- a concession surely made to appease the superior might of Konoha. 

Well, he wasn’t planning to send any sensitive information anyway, so even if the message was intercepted it would be fine as it would take time to break the code and by then Naruto would have left the place. Penning two identical copies of a letter, coded using one of the latest cyphers, he paid the service for express delivery. If it went according to plan the letters would reach Konoha by tomorrow morning. Before leaving he asked for a good doctor and was pointed towards a clinic located at the far side of the market.

After wandering through the town a bit he made his way towards the clinic. The inside of the building was very clean and the walls were covered with soft green paint. Walking towards the reception desk he saw a middle-aged woman manning the post.

“I would like to make an appointment.” He spoke softly trying to catch her attention as she was busily scribbling something on what looked to be a magazine.

“Name?” She said absently and looked up. Quickly taking in Naruto’s appearance she added hastily, “It would cost you extra if you want to keep it off record.”

Naruto had an idea about what she meant, but still chose to ask- after all it was never too disadvantageous to know more, “What do you mean?”

“We know how shinobi work, and we pride ourselves in keeping secrets. If you pay the relevant fees we would keep your name, affiliation and such out of written paperwork. It’s all legal of course we can’t lie about the procedure or treatment we use but you know how rich people and shinobi enjoy discretion. Here’s a price list.”

Looking at the list Naruto probed further, “Isn’t the price you are asking a bit too much? I think there are cheaper alternatives.”

“Not like ours kid.” She replied condescendingly, “Take the clinic down the street for example, Doctor Amano’s. He will treat you for cheap.” She leaned in and whispered, “But there are rumours that he sells information to the broker about nobles and such you know.” Leaning back she continued in a sanctimonious tone of voice, “You are young so you wouldn’t know but shinobi blood and DNA is in high demand. Listen to me and make an appointment here and you can personally destroy all your records after the check-up.”

“Well you sold me on the idea, keep my name out of the list.” Naruto said after looking thoughtful. Internally he was rolling his eyes at the naiveté of civilians if a shinobi wanted any information the most reliable source of gaining it, after not finding written records, would be by interrogating the staff. He wondered for a second if he should tell them about this but thought better of it as he might just unintentionally ruin Konoha’s source or something.

Still, this gave him an idea. He made an appointment for himself under a dummy name they provided and let the doctor examine the cut on his arm. He made sure the doctor burned the cotton and the gauze and he even confiscated the needle and the thread used to sew up his wound. He was feeling very paranoid. Apart from the academy check-ups he had never visited a doctor before and only did so this time because he changed plans at the last minute.

Leaving the clinic after paying he made his way towards Doctor Amano’s clinic. He knew this was a bad idea, a very bad idea, but he couldn’t pass up the opportunity. He had to take a chance. After making an appointment under Aoi’s name he made his way towards the toilet and summoned Umi, his mobile prison.

Taking Aoi from her he asked, “How are the others?”

“They are fine.” She said happily. She was eagerly looking around at her strange surrounding.

“Okay I will get this one patched up, then I’ll call you again.” He said patting Aoi’s body.

“Lady Kiyo asked for you.” She informed him hesitantly knowing how much a hassle dealing with her elder was.

“She did?” Naruto choked out, Lady Kiyo or Kiyohime was the elder of the serpent clan and the old windbag was way too demanding of his skills as a shinobi, always limiting his access to the stronger summons. He always felt it frustrating to talk to her. “Tell her I’ll come by later in a week or two, I’m kind of busy right now.” 

“I will but you better be ready to explain yourself.” She added hastily and disappeared quickly, depriving him of a chance to make excuses. She didn’t want to be the one to hear the elder’s ramblings on behalf of Naruto. 

Already trying to think of a plausible story for everything he was sure Lady Kiyo would nag him about he went to the waiting area. As he sat there seemingly lost in thought he quickly became aware of the odd looks he was getting from the other patients and nurses alike, which was understandable as from their perspective he went into the toilet alone and came out carrying a body.

Sitting there for a while his mind wandered towards his latest impromptu plan. It went against every fibre of his body, and he was growing more and more uncertain about it. He was willingly giving up information. He had lived his whole life hiding even the most inconsequential thing, and now he was choosing to reveal himself to the world over a half-baked plan, but he desperately wanted to find Tsunade. He needed to find her; grandma Mito was gone and he was feeling cornered with no one truly on his side. Even outside the village, he was being watched. He needed someone he could trust; he needed family no matter how distant. He only wished that Tsunade saw him as such. He could think of no other way to contact her aside from leaving the village and hunting her down, something he was very much unwilling to do. He knew he wouldn’t survive for long out there. Hopefully, the news of his hand in the capture of Aoi and the retrieval of the sword would convince Tsunade to make inquiries about the situation.

He was broken out of his musings when the nurse announced it was his turn; he stood up and carried Aoi into the doctor’s room. Fixing a large smile on his face he greeted the Doctor cheerily, “Good afternoon Doc!” Putting down Aoi’s body he continued, “Can you make sure that he survives? It would be bad if I had accidently killed him.”

The doctor didn’t seem distressed at his nonchalant attitude. _‘At least he seems to have experience dealing with shinobi.’_

The doctor started working on Aoi all the while asking questions, starting small and trying to wheedle out as much as he could out of Naruto. After a while, he asked, “Is he a missing-nin? You must be quite strong to capture one by yourself.”

“He is. I can’t tell you much but the bastard stole something from the village.” Naruto replied angrily but his expression changed into one of pride as he said, “Took him down quite easily though.”

“Oh, amazing! Quite a bounty you will collect then?”

Here it was. This is what he was waiting for. “Yup, 15 million ryo. I don’t know what I would do with so much money.” Naruto said excitedly. He didn’t show any indication if he saw the doctor’s hand seize up or not.

“That is some serious money. You shouldn’t be talking about it so loudly young man.” 

“Oops. Yeah, you’re right I just got excited about it.” Naruto replied sheepishly.

The doctor gave a boisterous laugh, “I understand your enthusiasm young man. Anyway the job’s done. The wound is light and there is no sign of infection so he will be fine. Still try not to move him too much.” Standing up and taking off his gloves the doctor turned towards Naruto and continued, “Take care, and please pay the nurse at the front.”

He knew the info he had given away would still take time for others to dig up as he wasn’t quite famous enough. Aoi would be easily identified though, because of the name and the bounty. He knew that even if the news travelled quickly very few people would be both strong and reckless enough to fight him in the middle of the capital. Aoi’s huge bounty should also provide enough deterrent to the small fries. Still, he wasn’t going to stay here anyway, not anymore.

After giving back Aoi to his summon, concealed in the shadow of a secluded alley, he decided to browse through the market. He might as well look for a replacement for his ruined clothes, he had an extra pair on him but he was sure he could find something similar. As he looked through the various stalls and shops he remembered that it had been quite some time since he had left Konoha and by the time he got back the construction of his shop would have finished. Looking around he saw a stall selling bolts of silk and he thought of Ayame. She had learned a bit of sewing and looking at the patterned silk with designs of fallen leaves he was sure she could make a beautiful winter kimono for herself.

Throughout the years Ayame had helped him a lot, even taking time off her busy schedule to teach him simple stuff when he was younger. He had always wanted to do something for her, but growing up as he did he had lacked the means to do anything meaningful. The material was somewhat expensive and he knew not to squander money but grandma had told him to not be constrained by it if it made him and the others close to him happy. Also, the thought of a 15 million bounty was making him fret, granted he wasn’t going to get all of it but seeing that he was the team leader and the one to capture Aoi his cut was going to be slightly bigger than his partners.

Buying up the material and getting a giddy feeling of doing something nice for someone he decided to buy something for Ino too. She was graduating any day now and Inoichi-san and Yume-san had gifted him an expensive calligraphy-set as a gift for his graduation. Although, he had no idea what to buy her as anything related to shinobi equipment he could just make himself if he wanted. He decided to just look around and see if he could find something interesting.

* * *

Naruto entered Konoha three days later in the shadow of the night. To make it harder for anyone trying to trail him, he had used his summon to leave the Land of Hot Water using the rivers; the rest of the distance he covered on foot. The journey had taken so much time because he had to camp in-between to rest up and properly heal.

He made his way towards T&I to drop off Aoi and his team of Ame-nin so they could receive proper treatment before being interrogated. He didn’t want them to die because of his negligence, while it was true that shinobi by large could survive for a longer period than civilians without much food and water he didn’t want to test the theory himself.

After dropping them off and giving the staff relevant information he made his way towards the hokage tower. He knew it was close to midnight and the hokage might not be available, but he had to make sure to notify him first and foremost. Unexpectedly the Hokage was still working. So he found himself standing in front of him ready to give a mission report.

“How are you Naruto-kun?” Hiruzen asked genially while putting aside the report he had been reading.

“I’m fine Hokage-sama, almost completely healed.” Naruto answered truthfully.

“So I assume despite some complications the mission was successful?”

“Yes sir, I delivered Aoi and his team to T&I. All of them are alive. And here’s the sword.” He said while gently placing the hilt on the table, he continued, “I would advise against using it again as Aoi apparently didn’t know how to properly handle it. It’s damaged beyond repair.”

Looking at the priceless weapon Hiruzen sighed sadly, “I remembered Tobirama-sensei wielding the blade in battle. He gave it to me so I could return it to his clan before he went to confront the Kumo ambush. It was such a beautiful blade. It’s a shame it’s been brought to such a state.”

“It is, I… I looked at the blade and as its method of creation is quite complex. I don’t know if it can be repaired without the blueprints.”

“Don’t worry about it Naruto-kun, I’m sure the Senju clan would be very grateful to you for bringing back their heirloom.” He smiled slightly seeing that Naruto perked up at the news. He was pretty certain that rather than completing the mission, Naruto’s source of joy was because the mission was related to the Senju.

“It was my duty sir.” He said cheerily before somewhat worriedly asking, “About my team, are they alright?”

“Yes Izumo-kun has a mild case of chakra exhaustion and because of your nifty little seal Kotetsu-kun is on his way to fully recovery.” Hiruzen said smiling slightly. “Could you please give me the full report of your mission? Izumo and Kotetsu have provided me with most of the details but as you can probably guess quite a lot of it is still missing.”

It took Naruto about a quarter of an hour to wrap up his report from start to finish. Hiruzen listened quietly allowing him to speak freely.

“You have become quite strong Naruto-kun; to face a squad of shinobi and almost succeed in eliminating all of them is an impressive feat for a chunin. Most importantly you were able to secure the safety of your teammates; that is very commendable. But before I dismiss you for the night I would like you to clear some things for me.” Tapping a piece of paper he continued, “It states here in Izumo’s report that you said that the incoming squad was hostile before even seeing them, how were you so sure?”

“I sensed a spike in their chakra. I thought they were readying up a technique and felt it better to be cautious.” Naruto said while schooling his expression. Inwardly he was praying that the hokage didn’t pry too much about his ability. If they don’t perform extensive testing he was sure he could pass it off as regular chakra sensing.

“Then you have a very impressive sensing ability.” Hiruzen said. “Now about the sound squad, I had the information department check up on them but they couldn’t find a match in the database, could you think of anything more that Izumo and Kotetsu might have missed.”

“I’m not sure sir. The leader of the team appeared to be an A-rank kunoichi named Guren she has a bloodline limit related to crystals; it appeared to be similar to the Yuki-clan’s Ice release but vastly stronger and more versatile. It also pretty much nullified water techniques.”

“You are sure it was a bloodline and not a secret technique.”

“Its use was too varied and I confirmed it later using my chains; it was a mixture of water and earth with earth nature being more dominant. There was no sign of yin or yang release in the technique. I didn’t interact much with the others but one of them was physically very strong even without the use of chakra. Apart from that, the only other thing that I felt odd was that they were sure that I was a jinchuriki.” Naruto answered while trying to remember if he was missing something.

“Ah yes, your teammates report did say that too. The kunoichi they fought was also physically stronger than them. It might just be that their physique gave them superior strength or it might have been some form of medical enhancement. As for your status as the jinchuriki I’m afraid it was just a matter of time before the other nations found out.” He stated looking lost in thought. 

“About the Otokage sir. They said their lord wanted to meet me.” Naruto probed.

“There have been reports of someone forming a new hidden village but we are unable to locate any signs of it. It is perplexing though, for someone to be able amass enough force to establish one so quickly.” Hiruzen stated slightly evading the question.

Naruto sensing that this was all he was going to get asked, “Is there anything else sir?”

“I have one last question before you are dismissed Naruto-kun. Why have you failed to inform me about your summoning contract?” He held up his hand to stop Naruto, seeing that he was opening his mouth to understandably protest, and continued, “I understand that you don’t wish to divulge all your techniques and neither do I want you to, unless of course they are kinjutsu but a summoning contract is another matter. You do realise that if you had informed me about it we could have set up a seal in my office to let you send me messages. Its far more reliable and quicker than using hawks or messengers, because of this I had to waste my time as well as the time of a squad sent after you.”

Seeing that the hokage was right and that he had no grounds to protest, Naruto apologised, “I’m sorry Hokage-sama but it didn’t cross my mind. I’ll look into it but I believe I don’t have access to a messenger serpent yet.”

“Discuss it with your summons and let me know as soon as you can.” Hiruzen said firmly. “I won’t mark this down against your upcoming evaluation, but next time be more mindful about the consequences of learning a technique.”

“Yes sir.” Naruto said solemnly.

“Good, I would also like you to make a trip to the information department within this week to provide a detailed description of this Guren and her techniques.” Seeing that Naruto understood he continued, “You can go now Naruto-kun, I will make sure your share of the bounty and the mission pay is transferred to your bank account by sometime tomorrow.”

“Thank you sir.” Naruto gave a swift salute to his leader before exiting the room.

It was only a short while later that Naruto found himself inside his apartment. Taking out two scrolls from within his sleeves he set them on his bedside table, he would have to take a detailed look on the data he had collected. If he was lucky he might be able to replicate the crystalline structure of the constructs Guren used with his chakra. It was a thought for another day though as he wanted to finish his other project first.

Excitedly he finished getting ready for bed; tomorrow he could visit his shop. He had been quite busy these last couple of months and he hadn’t spent much time with the Ichirakus in a while so he was looking forward to it. He had missed Ino too and now that he had some free time he could finally catch up with her. He closed his eyes, content at once again sleeping in his own bed. He was perfectly unaware about the fact that in a couple of weeks the kage of almost all the major villages would receive a file on their desk with his name written on it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I said I might post this chapter two days after the previous one but this chapter took me an obscene amount of time to fix. I wasn't satisfied with the starting dream bit for a long time even now I am not, but at this point I believe it is beyond my ability to do better.
> 
> Now couple of stuff about the chapter-
> 
> Ehime is an actual place in japan. I got the name from searching about famous hot-springs and such beyond that it has no meaning.
> 
> Kiyohime is a name of a female serpent from japanese myth. I googled it.
> 
> And lastly the silk kimono thing- I don't know anything about kimono and silk. I was even worried about the price of silk (I have no idea how much they would cost) and I was going to write a plotline about drop in silk's price and make Kiri the main manufacturer, so i could justify it as traders trying to unload their goods and what not. But I stopped myself in time when I found myself researching the effects of moisture and humidity in silk production and whether kiri was viable for it or not. It was too much work.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is part of a dual release. So before reading this chapter make sure you have read chapter 8.

To escape the bright morning light Ino snuggled deeper into the fluffiness of her blanket. It had been two days after her graduation and a day after the super-secret actual genin test and she was exhausted. With the amount of work she had to do through the week, she felt a daylong rest was well deserved. Thankfully her team was given a day off to relax before her career as a genin officially takes off. But even in her sleep heavy state, she couldn’t shake off the feeling that she was forgetting something, as if on days like these when she wanted to do nothing more than become a hibernating bear, something or someone would always come to ruin it.

“INO-CHAN~!”

Hearing the shout, Ino groaned into her pillow, of course, he would be here. It had been quite a while that he had done this, and that is why it had slipped out of her mind that Naruto had the annoying habit of disturbing her peace with his antics.

“INO-CHAN~!”

Hearing another one of his shouts, again accentuated with a singsong quality, she extracted herself out of her comfy bed. Grumbling slightly she peered out of her bedroom window and suppressed an amused snort. Her mood was already turning cheerful as she took in the sight of Naruto in his goofy glory. He was clearly in the mood for fun. He was standing in the middle of the quiet street wearing his usual black shirt and a pair of shorts all the while holding a rather large inner tube around his waist. She had no idea where he could have gotten it. 

Naruto grinned at the sight of her, looking half asleep with messy bed hair, and spoke loudly so she could hear him, “Let’s go swimming!”

“Go away Naruto. It’s too early.” She said half-heartedly. She could go for a swim but she also wanted to sleep in a bit more.

“No its not. Come on it will be fun. We can even go visit my shop after. Come on let’s go.”

“Alright geez, you idiot, you’re lucky that today’s my day off.”

Not even fazed by Ino’s remark Naruto happily said, “Cool. I’ll wait for you downstairs.”

Ino shook her head amusedly before moving towards the bathroom to get ready. If she had been younger and less knowledgeable about Naruto’s personality, she would have likely protested a lot more, but now she knew when to give up. If she had tried to tune him out he would have only gotten louder and her mother would have dragged her out of the bed to go out and play. It wasn’t like she was against going for a swim with Naruto because while she wasn’t willing to show it, she always had fun with him. He would often drag her out to go swimming, fishing or even camping once in a while although her father usually accompanied them on the last one.

It was half an hour later that she came down the stairs wearing a t-shirt, shorts and a pair of sandals. She was also carrying a handbag that contained another pair of clothes.

“Ah good morning Ino-dear, do you want some breakfast?” Yume Yamanaka greeted her daughter happily as she bustled around the kitchen. Naruto, Ino observed, was predictably stuffing his face with what appeared to be grilled fish, rice, miso soup, and an assortment of various side-dishes.

“Just some oatmeal mom.” She replied trying to refrain from eating a full heavy meal in the morning. Sometimes she wished she had a stronger stomach. Picking up a large red apple from the fruit bowl she turned towards Naruto and spoke rather derisively, “Do you only come here to annoy me or is it just to get free food.”

“INO! Don’t be rude.” Mrs Yamanaka said sternly to her daughter before she addressed her guest and spoke rather sweetly, “Naruto-kun don’t listen to her. You are welcome here anytime dear. You already look too thin if you don’t come often I would think you would just wither away. You do eat a balanced meal, don’t you?” she asked him while looking at him with great scrutiny as if she would sense it if he lied even a little bit.

She probably would be able to tell if he lied thought Naruto, “I do whenever I can.”

She didn’t look quite happy at the thought that Naruto didn’t eat a full course meal every day but knowing his condition she relented, “I guess that’s all I can expect from a young boy.”

Naruto didn’t think he was that skinny and while he wasn’t made of pure muscle he was fit. It wasn’t his fault though, he was only 13, and puberty had barely started for him.

After making sure he was clear of the Yamanaka matriarch’s sharp inquiry, Naruto turned towards his rice bowl and nonchalantly spoke to Ino, “I see your manners haven’t improved Ino, and here I thought after graduating you would have grown up a bit. I even bought you a graduation gift but now I’m worried if I should give it to you.” Naruto hummed looking thoughtful. From the corner of his eye, he could see that Ino had stopped slicing her apples and was looking at him with wide eyes.

“Oh, you don’t have to do such things.” Yume interjected worriedly. She figured it might have greatly inconvenienced him to spend his own money since all of his income came from taking dangerous shinobi missions.

“OF COURSE HE DOES! I mean, _ahem_ , Naruto cares about his best friend Ino-chan a lot, right? I can’t just reject his good intentions; he probably put a lot of thought into it. He’s such a sweet guy that he wouldn’t keep it from me.” Ino said rapidly then turning towards Naruto she continued, “You wouldn’t, would you Naruto-kun.” She asked sweetly, lightly batting her eyelashes at him.

Naruto stared at her for a moment before focusing on his meal and mumbling, “Ok fine but you’ll have to wait a bit.”

Ino nodded happily before she saw her mother looking at her amusedly, she cheerily stuck out her tongue towards her before quickly resuming her apple peeling.

After eating their breakfast and bidding farewell to Ino’s mom, Naruto and Ino made their way towards one of Konoha’s river by taking a path through the forest. The path didn’t look well-travelled but it was one they both were rather familiar with as it led to a great spot they had used in the past to laze around. As she walked Ino felt that she was forgetting something, deciding it had to be something related to Naruto, since she was only feeling it in his presence, she looked at him closely. It only took her a couple of seconds to realize what it was.

“Why are you wearing your forehead protector?” She asked quizzically.

“Why aren’t you wearing yours Ino? As a proud member of Konoha’s shinobi force shouldn’t you be always wearing one?” Naruto said solemnly, projecting fierce pride. 

“But I have seen you not wear one on multiple occasions before.” Ino said a hint of accusation leaking into her voice. Naruto was trying to make it sound like it was because of his duty rather than anything else, and she wasn’t buying it.

Hesitating slightly to think of an excuse Naruto replied, “Well that was before, now in a month or so I would be a special-jonin so I have to set an example for the others, you know.”

Ino stared hard at his face and scowled, “Cut the crap Naruto, I can tell when you are lying.” In a softer voice, she continued, “Did you get a scar or something?” She knew people can be sensitive about their appearance like her friend Sakura. Even she, as prideful as she was, hated certain faults about her body. So she continued delicately, “Don’t worry about it. It’s really not that big of a deal, lot of people have scars. Makes them look tough.”

Naruto sighed ruefully, why was she so perceptive, “It’s not a scar Ino. Nonetheless it’s something I would like to hide for a while.” It wasn’t a big secret for him to keep; he just wanted to hide it until he was sure that it worked.

Ino gave him a puzzled look before nodding slightly. She thought it would be better to come back to the subject later on when he felt more comfortable. She knew Naruto was very stubborn and more often than not he would not tell her anything he deemed too sensitive, no matter how much she pleaded.

It was a short while later that both of them reached the river. Naruto looked around at the serene scene of refreshingly cold water flowing languidly, its surface shimmering with delight. Just the sight of water was filling him with a soft sensation of peace. He heard a little rustling sound and saw Ino taking off her sandals and only a second later she ran full force ahead.

After making sure she had a significant advantage she called out loudly. “Last one in is a rotten egg.” 

Not wanting to be left behind he quickly took off his shirt and sandals before running. Halfway through he realised he would not make it before Ino, seeing that she was already near the water’s edge, he decided to have a bit of fun. Pumping a large amount of chakra into his leg he jumped as high as he could.

Ino reached the water in a full sprint and only slowed down when it reached up to her neck. She looked behind her, searching for Naruto so she could gloat but to her surprise, she didn’t find him. She was about to look around when she saw a dark shadow on the water’s surface growing larger and larger by the second. She didn’t have the time to brace herself when Naruto cannonballed into the water creating a huge wave that swept her of her feet, submerging her. She kicked and flailed before she broke the surface, spluttering out a mouthful of water.

“You asshole! I can’t believe you did that.” Ino shouted indignantly.

Seeing her fuming angrily, Naruto burst out laughing so hard he almost lost his footing. Watching him busting his gut she sneakily moved towards him, thoughts of sweet revenge filling up her head. She tried to dunk his head underwater only for him to lift her and toss her into the water again. Going through the whole process again of kicking and flailing she hastily swam up.

Ino tried to scowl towards him but after a while, she let out a peal of laughter. She couldn’t be mad at him for long for something so innocuous. After some time with their stomachs hurting from laughing too hard they settled on floating on the surface of the water, Ino had commandeered the inner tube Naruto had bought with him. She was glad for the outing as it let her unwind after such a stressful week.

As she floated on the river watching Naruto swim laps around her she spotted something on his back, frowning she felt it better to just ask him about the odd sight, “Naruto what’s that?”

“What’s what Ino?” Naruto asked while coming to a standstill. He swam towards her and latched onto the tube.

Trying not to fall into the water due to him rocking her she growled, “On your back you idiot, there’s writing on your back.” Looking closely she spotted some writing on his stomach too. “There’s some on your stomach too.”

Naruto looked down and sure enough, his seal was visible; he turned around so his back was facing Ino and asked, “Is it two vertical lines of text going down on either side of my spine?”

“Yes.”

Naruto furrowed his brows. “They shouldn’t be visible.” Before comprehension dawned on his face as he untied his forehead protector revealing a rhombus-shaped mark and lightly tapped his finger on it. Feeling a tingling sensation he spoke in excitement, “It’s done.”

_‘So that’s what he had been hiding.’_ Filled with a sense of curiosity Ino asked, “What are you talking about and what are those marks on your body?”

He couldn’t tell her that the one in his stomach was a seal so he went with the one on his back to maybe redirect her attention. “It’s a formula for a technique of mine.”

“What do they do?”

“Clan jutsu, Ino.” Naruto said seriously trying to end any further questioning.

“So what? I tried to show you my mind body switch but you refused, and now you aren’t going to show me your technique.” She huffed angrily; it wasn’t like she was asking him to teach her these specific techniques, she only wished to know more. Crossing her arms in front of her she added grumpily, “I bet its lame anyway.”

Now Naruto would generally be unfazed about something like this but Ino had a way of bringing out his childishness. He got really annoyed by her calling his awesome techniques lame, they were not run of the mill boring techniques, so to shut her up he decided to show her, “Fine, but only one of them.” He said before activating his chains. “These are adamantine chains.”

Ino looked at the chains in awe; there were a total of six of them coming out of Naruto’s back with smooth golden links connected to a mean-looking kunai-like blade at the end. “What do they do?” she asked unknowingly repeating her earlier question.

“A multitude of things but the easiest thing they can do is this.” Saying so he slowly sent one of his chains towards Ino and coiled it around her wrist, “Try moulding your chakra.”

As she often did to open simple storage scrolls, Ino brought up a small amount of chakra into her hand only for it to leave without her permission. Gasping at the uncomfortable sensation she felt, she asked, “What did you do?”

“Sapped your chakra, as long as the chain is coiled around your wrist you wouldn’t be able to use chakra in that part without somehow overpowering me, and all the other uses would also be far more draining than normal.” Retracting his chains he focused on the feeling he had received when he had come into contact with Ino’s chakra. “I didn’t know you were lightning natured Ino.”

“I’m what?”

“Your primary nature is lightning.”

Ino asked excitedly, “How do you know that? I thought I would require a chakra paper to find out my affinity. I even tried to buy one before but the shopkeeper said I required a jonin’s permission, something about recklessly learning elemental jutsu without supervision.”

“I felt it when I absorbed your chakra; it’s very subtle like how a chakra paper reacts. If I didn’t have a lot of experience with sensing chakra I wouldn’t have been able to tell you. As for nature manipulation, the shopkeeper was right, you shouldn’t try to practice it without someone teaching you, let alone a dangerous element like lightning you might just fry your nerves from the backlash.”

“Oh man, you don’t know lightning manipulation?” Ino asked hopefully.

“Nope. Why are you worried about it so much? Ask your jonin sensei and if they feel you are ready they might teach you or at least find someone to teach you.” Seeing her nod dejectedly he tried to change the subject, “So what about your team who’s your sensei?”

“Asuma Sarutobi, he was a former bodyguard of the daimyo. I like him he seems like he knows his stuff. I don’t like his smoking habit much though. He said he wanted to train the next generation of Ino-shika-cho so that’s why Shikamaru Nara and Choji Akimichi are also in my team.”

“So you like your team.” Naruto asked; it seemed Asuma got his wish.

“I don’t know yet both of them were quite lazy in the academy, but it seems that Shikamaru is very smart and Choji seems somewhat skilled with his clan technique. So I guess now that we are officially genin they might try harder with their training. It has only been a day after all.” She had known the two boys for quite a while but only as family friends as she couldn’t stand their lazy attitudes. Whenever she had to spend time with them in the family gatherings she would always try to make them do something fun but the boys even found talking to be too much work. After a while she gave up on making friends with them, inwardly she wondered if their team would be any good.

“Well, whatever the outcome of your team training may be you could always do some extra training on your own, most of the people I know did that in their genin days. Having combinations and team attacks is all fine and dandy but in the future you might have to go on some missions without them so make sure you are strong enough on your own.”

“I know. Hey, I was thinking can you teach me that body flicker thing?”

“I don’t know Ino.” Seeing her rearing up to go on a tirade he quickly spoke up, “It’s a complimentary technique at most. It’s not that hard to learn but I don’t think you would be able to use it in combat.”

“Doesn’t matter. Teach me please.” She pleaded, making sure to look Naruto straight in the eyes.

Looking at her bright eyes Naruto didn’t have it in him to decline, “Alright fine.”

It took about an hour of his time to show Ino the basics of the technique and after watching her for another half an hour exhausting herself, trying to grasp it, Naruto decided it was time for them to leave.

“That’s enough for today Ino, if you don’t stop now you might collapse from chakra exhaustion. Let’s go look at my shop. I just have to go get the keys from Ayame”

“Sure, but we don’t have to go get the keys I already have them.”

“What! Why do you have them?”

“It’s a surprise.” Ino cheekily replied.

“What have you done?” Naruto asked dread seeping into his voice.

“Don’t be so dramatic. You will love it, come on.” She said while tugging his arm.

It was after walking for a while that they reached his shop and already he could see that things were quite different from what he had imagined. Banners with his clan’s symbol morphed into a twisting flower were adorned into the sides of the front doors. It honestly looked beautiful, majestic even.

“Why the flower motif though?” He asked Ino. It was probably her doing; she liked everything related to flowers and plants.

“I don’t know, Ayame-san created them, go ask her.” Ino replied.

“Oh, well they look beautiful.”

“Wait for what’s inside.” She replied with barely suppressed glee.

Seeing her so excited, Naruto too began anticipating something awesome. He watched her open the front doors with his key, he would have to ask her to give those back because knowing Ino she wouldn’t do it of her own accord, and he didn’t have a spare.

As he walked inside his attention was quickly drawn to the various flowers and plants placed inside the room, giving off a refreshing feeling. He knew enough about taking care of plants to know that the ones here would have taken quite a while to grow as big as they did. He turned towards Ino to ask where she got these ones because he wasn’t going to take these for free if they were from the Yamanaka flower shop, but stopped short as his eyes caught the sight of the far wall.

It was a mural similar in style to the ones he had seen in traditional paintings. It was a scene of a great wave of water, seemingly large enough to swallow all. A large wooden boat, which appeared to be more like a small dingy in front of the mighty wave, was getting capsized. On the other side of the wave was a steep cliff with a lone tree being bent by some unseen force. It was awe-inspiring, he didn’t know why. Tearing his eyes from the grand spectacle he looked at Ino to ask about the painting only to take in her smug look.

Not wanting to look like he was impressed, he didn’t know why he was denying that feeling, he said, “It’s missing something.”

Ino’s look of smug satisfaction turned into a scowl, “What?”

Now, Naruto was cursing himself for not being honest but soldiered on, “A hero braving wind and water, maybe someone like me.”

Ino huffed, and replied condescendingly “Then the painting would be too ugly.”

Naruto inwardly winced but outwardly he gasped exaggeratedly, “Sometimes you are too mean, Ino.”

Ino replied coldly, “And sometimes you are an asshole. I worked hard.”

“I didn’t say I didn’t like it.”

“You didn’t say you like it either. You just criticised it.”

Seeing her mood turning sour he said truthfully, “I was joking… I… I love it.” He said his face red from embarrassment, “Thank you.” He still felt uneasy whenever someone did something so nice for him.

Looking towards him Ino smiled sweetly, she wasn’t going to let him off so easily, “Aren’t I the greatest, doing so much for you.”

Naruto cleared his throat slightly and barely mumbled out, “Sure.”

“I can’t hear you.” Ino said.

Naruto seeing that this situation was too embarrassing just huffed and made his way towards the workshop to avoid her, his embarrassment only mounting when he heard her giggling loudly behind him. After taking a thorough tour Naruto decided it was time to return. Closing the shop behind him he locked the door using the keys Ino had.

“So how is it?” He heard Ino’s voice asking him for his impression.

“Thank you.” He didn’t quite understand it fully but he felt overwhelmed with emotion.

“Make sure to take care of the plants, I left a notebook on how to do so. Don’t you dare forget mister because I’ll be regularly visiting to make sure.” Ino said bossily, deigning it better to not comment on Naruto’s slightly glassy eyes. It was for a very different reason than her previous one, that she felt that all her effort had been worth it.

“I will.” Naruto wanted to ask how much the plants were worth so he could pay the Yamanaka’s back but seeing her obvious joy he decided not to. He would just do something similar for her when the time came. He looked at her before deciding that now might be a good time to give her the present he bought for her. “Give me your hand.”

“Why?”

“For your gift.”

Ino quizzically did so before she softly gasped as he held her hand with his own. Was he going to give her some jewellery, maybe a bracelet or something? What if he was giving her a rin- She quickly stopped that ridiculous thought, Naruto wouldn’t do that; they were friends. They were just friends, so why was she getting strangely excited. Her flustered faced soon turned into a look pure confusion before it morphed into one of annoyance because Naruto in his idiotic brilliance had tied a metal arm brace on her arm.

She knew he was an idiot and it made sense that he might make a piece of armour for her but she was still somewhat disappointed. At least the arm guard looked good it was also very light. Before she could retract her hand to take a closer look at it Naruto stopped her and using his other hand whistled sharply.

Ino held back a scream as a beautiful eagle swooped down towards them. She instinctively tried to withdraw her hand but Naruto’s firm grasp put an end to that. The creature slowly settled on her outstretched arm heavily weighing it down; she had to make an effort to hold it in place. She was quite thankful for the arm guard because she was sure that without it the majestic bird of prey would have shredded her arm very badly with its long talons. She settled her wildly beating heart as she observed the creature closely. It had dark black feathers with a smattering of snow-white plumage appearing on its shoulders and tail. It was also quite large about 6 feet with its wings fully unfurled and was quite heavy.

“She’s a sea eagle form a snowy biome, or so the trader said. Apparently she’s still young, only three years old, and if you can teach her well she would become an excellent companion.” Naruto said while gently stroking the bird before calmly retracting his hand so that Ino could familiarise herself with her new nin-companion.

It only took a few seconds for Ino to snap out of her daze and extend her other hand slowly towards the eagle. She squealed in delight when the young bird affectionately nuzzled against her hand.

Seeing them bond Naruto took out a thick book and showed it to Ino. “This is a manual on how to raise her, if you do it correctly your new companion might even learn a few jutsu and with your mind techniques you can use her to scout out your surroundings. Make sure to read the whole book before doing anything though.”

Ino looked back towards her eagle before instinctively she lightly bounced her outstretched arm that was holding her and as if the smart bird understood her intentions she flew up into the sky; lightly stretching her wings it circled over their heads. Impressed by her intelligence Ino smiled brightly before she suddenly lunged towards Naruto and gave him a firm hug.

“I love her, Naruto. She’s so beautiful.” She squealed out in obvious delight.

Slightly embarrassed Naruto awkwardly patted her back, “I’m glad you do. I haven’t named her so you better think of a good one.”

“I will!” She said before taking the book from Naruto’s hand. This was one of the best presents she had ever received.

After talking a bit more with Ino and handing her the other arm guard Naruto bid her farewell. He could tell that she was very excited to spend some time with her new companion and he thought it better to leave her alone for that. He didn’t want to confuse the bird on who was the owner by staying. He had given her to Ino and now it truly only belonged to her.

He made his way towards the training grounds and after finding an unused one that met his requirements he started putting up various seals and barrier jutsu over the vicinity. After completing the preparations he untied his headband and readied himself to test out his new technique.

_ 'This is the moment, the big test, the start of something new, a conception of probably his best technique, it was now or never, well it wasn’t never, he could do this later, should he do it later?' _ He didn’t know why but he felt slightly scared and was having second thoughts about it. Exhaling slowly he took in some deep breaths to calm himself. It was fine; he couldn’t just run away from this. Sure the seal was heavily modified and there was no precedent for him to derive conclusions from. _‘What’s the worst that could happen? Well… NO no no, don’t even think about it Naruto.’_

Bracing himself for any mishap he released the seal. It barely took him a moment to register the overwhelming power rush into his body but unlike the vile, malevolent rage-inducing chakra of the kyuubi, this was calm and serene. He resisted the urge to yell out in joy. It looked like he had succeeded. He had never felt so in control before with just the tiniest bit of thought he could feel his chakra move.

“So this is what perfect chakra control feels like.” He mused.

He slowly moved towards the nearby pond taking his time to adjust to this new feeling and peered in to see his reflection. The seal had unfurled over his forehead and looked similar to a circlet around his head before disappearing beneath his hairline. He imagined it circled around and connected itself to his other seals on his spines. But what he was most satisfied with was his whisker marks; they had disappeared from his face. It had been Mito who had found them to be odd. She had asked him once.

_ “Do you remember when you got those markings Naru?” _

_ Naruto tilted his head in puzzlement as he tried to recall when he had not had them. “I can’t.” _

_ “How curious.” _

_ “Isn’t it because mom had the Kyuubi?” _

_ “But then my children would have them too but they didn’t. Your seal must be different from ours because neither I nor Kushina had those marks.” _

_ “Then why?” Naruto asked unhappily, he didn’t like those marks, and now that he knew it was because of the kyuubi it was even more so. Now every time he saw his own reflection it would be another reminder of the Kyuubi’s presence. _

_ “Don’t worry we will find out why.” Mito replied calmly. _

And, now he was sure of the reason, somehow the kyuubi was influencing him more than it did its previous jailers. If this was true than Naruto felt that he was an inferior cage than his mother and grandmother. Because only when he separated himself from the chakra of the Kyuubi, and relied on this new purified chakra did he lose the Kyuubi’s influence completely.

Shaking himself out of his rather morose thought, he stood up and made his way towards a rather large boulder. It was massive in size easily towering over him. Cocking his fist back he called upon his new chakra, _‘Remember chakra control, reign it in and explode it outwards at contact’_. Mentally make sure he knew the procedure he punched,

CRACK 

Naruto screamed in agony; his arm was broken and his fingers were mangled beyond recognition. Hot white pain was shooting up his arm, every tremor his body involuntarily took only increased its magnitude. It took a moment for him to compose himself. It seemed the new chakra wasn’t trying to fix the damage which was both good and bad for various reasons. Making sure he was fine and able to move, he looked blearily through his tear-filled eyes and gaped in astonishment, the bolder was gone, there didn’t seem to be any smaller pieces remaining; it looked as if it had simply disintegrated. Cupping his hand gently he deactivated the seal before unwillingly making his way towards the Hokage tower. He wanted to make sure his bones were set properly before they healed and for that, he would need a proper medical professional.

The technique was devastating and he was sure that if he was able to harness the chakra properly it would propel his strength to another level, only he had no idea how to do that. He would have to find someone who could hit as hard as he did and ask them how to avoid blowing his limbs off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading this chapter and leaving Kudos. I'm very excited because I can't believe I crossed 50k word count.
> 
> If you find the description of the shop, plants and painting a bit lacking please cut me some slack as I have no knowledge on these subjects and this was honestly the best I could do without investing more than two hours on research.
> 
> I changed Ino's affinity because Naruto already uses water in my fic, and i wanted to give her something destructive and fire is to common in konoha and wind is kind of canon Naruto's thing.
> 
> I also changed a lot of canon workings of some techniques in this chapter and I will slowly reveal why and what about them in the future chapters.
> 
> One last thing Ino's eagle is based on the Steller's sea eagle but is slightly different because of the existence of chakra.
> 
> Also nothing romantic will happen between Naruto and Ino until shippuden timeline because I'm not comfortable with writing them like that until they are older (by then Naruto would be 17-18 and Ino would be 16-17) but they will spend quite a bit of time together as friends until then (like in this chapter).
> 
> The next chapter might take more than a month, so if I don't post one for a while please rest assured i am just studying for an exam.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is part of a triple release. Or it might be if I don't fall asleep editing the other two chapters.

His ears easily picked up the soft reverberating sound of footsteps travelling through the walls of the long hallway, outside the room he was occupying. With only this little bit of information, he could easily visualise the offending shinobi under his command making his way towards him, towards his lab. He didn’t like to be disturbed when he was in here; such delicate work which he performed here needed all his uninterrupted attention. Still, he knew if anyone dared to interfere with his research when explicitly told not to, it would probably mean that something important required his attention.

“Orochimaru-sama, Guren-sama is requesting an audience.” The shinobi, who he was pleased to know he had identified correctly with just using his auditory senses, spoke in a subdued voice, his physical frame still, as if afraid of incurring the wrath of a predator.

Orochimaru did nothing but smile softly and said in a velvety whisper, “Send her in.” Prompting the shinobi to bow quickly and race out of the room to fulfil his new task.

He had learned to coerce and inspire obedience through fear mixed with the allure of attention and generosity, a startling realisation he had come to practice quite late in his life. At first, he had coasted through life’s obstacles banking on the blindness of his peers, something he had found relatively easy, knowing how the sentimental fools he was surrounded by always tried to see the good in everyone, rationalising blindly, the errant behaviour of their loved ones. Still, he had miscalculated how far they could go before they were willing to step outside of their comfort zone. The price of this revelation was quite steep; he had thought everyone a fool, and as a result, lost much in the process. He had lost the chance to gain his rightful position as the hokage, barred from the deep well of knowledge Konoha had in its store, the money, the power, and the sheep.

Now left with his thoughts and his mind losing interest in the subject of his latest research, he scoured his memory on why Guren could be here. He had given her a very specific task; she was to secure the borders and oversee the construction of a few bases near the area. He made sure to rotate the shinobi under his command for that endeavour to prevent any single one from knowing too much information about his hideouts. The consolidation of his territory was still ongoing as he could not stretch his hands too quickly; otherwise, his plans would have to unfurl prematurely. Quite an important task he had left for Guren; therefore, he was very eagerly waiting for her arrival, knowing that she would not have left her post unless it were vital.

He waited patiently, savouring the silence before the reveal. His ears perked up slightly as he heard the sound of highly muffled footsteps, characteristic of a trained shinobi. He frowned when he realised a slight oddity. The sounds of Guren’s gate was odd. Injury, he mused. That was unacceptable. Guren was one of his finest specimens, holding a rare bloodline. It would be disastrous if something untoward happened to her body.

He watched as she entered, scrutinising her, looking for an imperfection. Finding nothing overtly wrong, he chose to exercise patience.

Guren bowed reverentially, “Lord Orochimaru, I apologise for leaving my post, but I have some important news.”

“Go on.”

“Konoha’s Kinchuriki, Naruto Uzumaki, entered your territory a couple of days ago on a mission. I confronted him,” hesitatingly, she continued, “and he managed to escape, killing my squad in the process.”

Orochimaru listened in fascination, “Is he capable of using the Kyuubi?”

“No, at least I don’t think he can, I could not detect any foul chakra, so I’m not sure.”

Orochimaru asked, “Interesting, tell me how did he manage to achieve that without the Kyuubi? The members of your squad, if I recall correctly, were genetically enhanced were they not. It took quite an effort to create them. With you on the team, it should have been quite an easy task to capture him.”

“I underestimated him, we were prepared to fight a jinchuriki, but Uzumaki is very wily; throughout the fight, he was on a back foot, but he had an uncanny ability to take advantage of tricky situations,” Guren said with discontent.

“Tell me about his abilities,” Orochimaru ordered.

“He’s proficient with swords, has a better mastery of water jutsu than me, he also holds a summoning contract, it’s similar to your snakes, with slight differences the summons looked more… aquatic. Like a cross between snakes and alligators.” Guren tried to explain.

“Those would be the serpents, I believe. The snakes have a bitter relation with them.” Orochimaru cut in. He had to learn the history of the snakes to earn their respect when he had gained the summoning contract. He asked, “Anything else.”

“He also knows quite a bit of fuinjutsu,” scowling, she added, “He can also use those annoying Uzumaki chains.”

Guren took off her boot, showing her pale skin marred by a scar; it resembled a thorny vine climbing up, coiled around her leg.

Orochimaru observed the scar, quite unusual; it appeared similar to wounds caused by chakra burn. Undeniably it was created by the fabled Adamantine chains, a versatile jutsu. He wanted to desperately learn it, it was very mysterious, even Konoha didn’t know who the creator was, he knew, after all, he had asked Kabuto to look into it.

He had only learned about the jutsu by coming across a partially destroyed scroll originating from Uzu. The technique appeared to be a part of something bigger. For now, it was beyond his understanding; he wasn’t well versed in fuinjutsu, and the other arts related to it, he had observed his lack of skill because of creativity. Fuinjutsu to him was an unholy combination of both logic and art. The logical, scientific part of him struggled to understand the mystical side of it. Still, it was his one true desire to learn everything, all he needed was time.

“Tell me everything from the start, every single detail,” Orochimaru said as he settled in on his chair intent to learn more.

Hearing his command Guren started recounting the entire encounter, in detail even though she would have loved to leave a few bits and pieces out.

As he listened, Orochimaru could not help but lament the fact that he could not take over Naruto’s body, on account of him being a jinchuriki but that didn’t mean he wasn’t interested. To fulfil his desire to learn every jutsu, he would need to find a way to transfer bloodlines across different bodies or maybe create one that can hold every single one. The Senju DNA he had acquired from Hashirama was perfect for containing multiple bloodlines, but after observing the abnormal growth of the cells, he had shelved the idea. A body as adaptable as an Uzumaki could possibly synergise with the cells.

He needed to see the full potential of the boy, a few harsh struggles here and there would give him an accurate reading. He had asked Kabuto to send him a copy of the medical reports of the academy students throughout the years, in hopes of learning more about the young Uchiha, he wondered if he could find something more about Naruto in there.

* * *

Hiruzen Sarutobi was surprised when his door was slammed open, not because of the act itself, as it was a semi-regular occurrence. No, it was because it wasn’t his grandson who had done the deed. The source of it was one Naruto Uzumaki, who had barged into his office, all the while clutching his arm. Seeing his face contorted in extreme discomfort, he quickly took a better look at his arm. Seeing the mangled hand, fingers twisted, and two major breaks along the arm, Hiruzen swiftly called in his personal medic-nin, an anbu, to tend to his injury.

After the treatment was done, with his arm now in a cast, Naruto abruptly started pacing to and fro mumbling angrily. Hiruzen was surprised by this, as it had been a while since he had seen Naruto show an unrestrained emotion in front of him.

Thinking it better to know what the problem was rather than speculate wildly, he asked, “What happened, Naruto-kun?”

Naruto stopped and took in a deep breath before pulling out a scroll from underneath his sleeve and placed it gently on the Hokage’s desk; inwardly though he wanted to smash the scroll into the desk with enough force to bury it into the wood and split the table in two.

Quickly recognising it as a jutsu scroll, Hiruzen picked it up and swiftly read through its contents.

_Chakra Enhanced Strength, Taijutsu- a technique that uses the refined chakra control and concentration required at the level of medical ninjutsu to enhance one’s strength to monstrous levels. This is done by storing chakra into one’s hands or feet and releasing it onto the target with pinpoint timing. With this strength, the user can decimate the ground or even kill opponents with a single strike…._

_‘Well, this doesn’t look right.’_ Even before finishing the first paragraph, he could already see that the author of the scroll had made some incorrect assumptions. The thing was, as much as the wrong information in the scroll was a problem, he was more concerned over the reason why Naruto was trying to learn this technique. As far as he was aware, Naruto hadn’t acquired the level of chakra control required to be even remotely successful at executing it. At least that part, the scroll had gotten right. If he were only doing this to emulate Tsunade, Hiruzen would have to find a way to stop this. It was his duty as the Hokage to rein in such behaviour as even something so seemingly innocuous as Naruto’s desire for a familial connection could turn into an obsession, as many a shinobi desires tend to do. The path of a shinobi was stressful, and he couldn’t think of a single soldier in his command that was mentally, perfectly healthy in the technical sense. They all had their vices and coping mechanisms; it was his job to ensure that their eccentricity did not turn unhealthy, and in turn, hinder their capacity to perform their duty.

“You tried this method? I wasn’t aware that you had achieved such fine control over your chakra.” He probed.

Naruto looked surprised, “You mean the scroll is right?”

“At least the requirement for chakra control is. So again, have you reached that level of control?”

“Yeah.” Tapping the rhombus-shaped mark on his forehead with his working hand, Naruto continued, “I modified the Yin-seal so that it takes in the Kyuubi’s leaking chakra. After it goes through the eight trigram’s seal a couple of times of course. All of it is done in its dormant state. On the other hand, when activated, it separates my own chakra network, sealing all of it in my core along with the Kyuubi’s influence, and providing an alternate path, thus giving me artificially generated chakra control.”

Now, Hiruzen wasn’t called the professor for nothing; he had extensive knowledge of nearly all shinobi arts. Therefore it was unsurprising that unlike others who would have been confused, it only took him a moment to unpack the concise statement he was given. He understood more than what was said, and the underlying implications were alarming, to say the least. What Naruto was claiming to have accomplished was absurd, not to mention dangerous. Frankly, for a brief moment, he thought he was going senile. In his state of bafflement, he even considered the possibility that his hearing had deteriorated so much that his mind was conjuring absurd notions to fill in the blanks.

“Naruto-kun, if I understand correctly, your new technique is linked to the eight trigrams seal. I don’t believe that you’re foolish enough to mess with it, so it would be better if you could ease some of my concerns.” Hiruzen said sedately.

He was far more concerned about the seal deteriorating than anything else at the moment. However, he didn’t wish for Naruto to know that. So, he chose to gently probe into the matter while making it look like he was only concerned about Naruto messing with the seal without permission. It was a little trick he had learned from his teacher to poach answers from an advantageous position.

“But I didn’t. I didn’t even touch the seal, I just used the Kyuubi’s chakra, and I already informed you about it beforehand.” Naruto answered.

“But, you did say that you are using it somehow,” Hiruzen said.

“Well yeah, but it’s a built-in function of the seal.” Naruto wasn’t sure what the confusion was.

“Tell me more about the technique then, from the beginning, so that I can understand.” Hiruzen had no choice but to press the issue.

“Okay.” Naruto took a moment to gather his thoughts, “I did it because of how the eight trigrams seal was applied. Normally the seal is applied so that a set of four seals perfectly overlap another set of four. But the one applied to me is skewed.” He said bitterly. Taking a long breath as if to release some of his mounting emotions, he continued, “I don’t know why the seal was designed as it was. At first, I thought the Fourth made a mistake, which I could understand. After all, applying such a complex seal while fighting the Kyuubi would be hard for anyone, but after some thought, it seems to be deliberate.” Again his voice and mannerisms were tinged with discontent.

“Why do you think so?” Hiruzen had no idea that Naruto felt this way. Sure he had anticipated that Naruto might feel resentful for being a jinchuriki, which was understandable. However, from the looks of it, it appeared as if he was angrier towards what he perceived to be his faulty seal than being the jailer of the Kyuubi. Which, if true, was somewhat telling.

“At first glance, it looks like a mistake, but I don’t know how the Fourth did it… his modifications to the eight trigrams seal, allow me to assimilate the leaking chakra into my system by severely limiting Kyuubi’s influence. If it didn’t somehow limit the Kyuubi’s influence, just by the accumulation of the leaking chakra, I would be in a perpetual state of aggression. Now, if I use a tiny amount of its chakra, there are close to no side effects, but that amount is so little that it might just be useless in a battle. Other than increasing my chakra pool, this modification is useless. Even then, it is more of a hindrance, as the small amount of chakra adds up over time and forces my body to adapt. The unnatural increase causes me to keep chasing more chakra control.”

“How large have your reserves grown?” Hiruzen asked.

“Far more than I need at the moment.”

Hiruzen looked thoughtful. He could understand the dilemma, the human body was limited to using about twenty percent of its natural chakra pool for physical enhancements. As for using ninjutsu and genjutsu, considering Naruto’s lineage, he couldn’t think of very many techniques that could even put a dent in his reserves. He had no answer to that right now, as this problem might just be unique to Naruto. “And is this why you used the Yin seal?”

“Yeah, I already have reserves so large that I have trouble exhausting myself even if I want to, so a backup battery of sorts is of no use to me. On the other hand, the Yin-seal connects all the tenketsu of the body and requires an inhumane amount of concentration and control to charge up. Any normal user would have to feed the seal constantly, even when doing menial everyday tasks. Imagine talking, eating, walking, and going through your normal life, all the while continuously moving your chakra in a precise way and storing it into the seal. I don’t know how anyone can manage to do that.” Naruto sighed in wonder. “Anyway, I found out a way to bypass all of that. I already have the Kyuubi’s chakra being forced into my system, and despite the initial filtration of the seal, it is still different from my chakra, at least for a while. Naturally, it takes a lot of time to mix with my own. So I just decided to feed that chakra to the Yin seal before it could become mine. But, since the Yin-seal was never meant to contain the highly corrosive chakra of the Kyuubi, and even if it was capable of that, if I decided to use such a large amount of it, I might lose control and go berserk. So, to prevent that, I decided to clean it a bit more by letting it go through the eight trigram’s seal a couple of times.”

“If what you say is correct, then how did you connect the chakra points without possessing extensive knowledge of your body?” Hiruzen couldn’t think of a way to do that without knowing the ins and outs of human anatomy. Even with an anatomical chart, it would be nigh impossible to locate all the tenketsu as every single person is different; even tiny variations such as height and weight would cause slight changes in the location of the points. Unless Naruto had devised a way to look at his own chakra network, which outside of using a powerful dojutsu like the byakugan, he could not think of a way of doing. Even the sharingan, a powerful dojutsu in its own right, is unable to locate the minuscule chakra points.

“Trial and error.” Smirking slightly, Naruto continued, “I approximately knew where the points are, so I just decided to heal through the damage I might cause when trying to locate them.”

 _‘Damn Uzumaki and their healing.’_ Hiruzen thought wryly. He had always known the recklessness the Uzumaki seemed to have and was aware that their physique bordered on abnormal. There were very few clans who possessed such resilience, namely the Senju and Kaguya. Even then, it would be hard for them to fully heal through such damage. Uzumaki healing was slightly different from other conventional ones as theirs worked over a more extended period of time; it might not be the fastest in the short term, but given enough time, they would indeed heal through most of it.

“And you are sure your chakra control is near perfect with the seal activated?”

“I don’t necessarily know what perfect control feels like, but I think I have achieved it. When the seal is activated, my pathway is changed, with the Yin-seal becoming the new core. All of it becomes artificial, so there is a very tiny margin of error.” He was very confident in his assertion. His seal might be highly modified and new, but he knew he was right, “I still feel that the scroll is wrong.”

Nodding, Hiruzen supplied, “Tsunade never really catalogued her technique, so I don’t know where this scroll came from. Although from what I can tell, if you performed the technique according to the scroll, you might produce a devastating force, but the backlash would harm you. As to how Tsunade counteracts it- I believe it’s partially because she is naturally very strong, as even without using chakra, she is far stronger than an adult Akimichi.”

“So, I can only give up on the technique?”

Hiruzen thought for a moment, “You should ask Gai he might be able to help you with both of your problems.”

At that, Naruto looked confused. “Both problems?”

“With the backlash and with having excess chakra.”

“He can?” Naruto looked surprised, he knew Gai was strong and was a master of taijutsu, but he couldn’t think of how Gai could help him here.

“I’m not sure, but there should be no harm in asking him. He is a practitioner of the eight-gates. His knowledge is much more extensive than mine.”

“Hokage-sama, don’t you know how to perform every technique in Konoha?” Naruto asked.

“Heard it from Iruka-kun, have you.” Hiruzen chuckled slightly. 

Naruto could only nod at that. Indeed, it had been the new sensei in the last year of his schooling, who had told them that the Third Hokage was known as ‘The Professor’. The title was given to him because he was a master of every known technique in Konoha, including the secret clan techniques. Naruto had been sceptical of that as there were simply too many techniques, and some of them required very high-level supplementary knowledge.

“Iruka-kun, bless him, tends to exaggerate for effect sometimes. I merely have basic knowledge of every technique, and in most cases, the masters of these arts would be more adept at telling you the details.” The Hokage supplied amusedly. Patting the scroll lightly, he continued, “As for this scroll, I will make sure it is removed from the archive. Sadly, I don’t have a lot of time to review every technique that gets put in there, and I don’t know anyone else knowledgeable enough to sift through them correctly.” Kakashi might be able to he mused, but he was simply too skilled to be designated a desk job.

Naruto could only nod at that. He had an inkling of how taxing the Hokage’s job was, so it would be naive to expect him to go through several thousands of techniques that get put in the archives.

“Before I dismiss you, Naruto-kun, could you activate your Yin-seal.”

Naruto didn’t see any reason not to, although even if he wished otherwise, it wasn’t as if he could refuse the Hokage’s request. While showing him his seal, he made sure to impress upon the Hokage that he had indeed reached an impressive level of control by bringing up chakra to each of his fingers individually. He even went a bit farther by conjuring a single droplet of water on the tip of all five.

Hiruzen had always believed in the potential Naruto held within him. Thinking over the matter, he quickly made up his mind. Pulling up a blank scroll from his desk, he silently began writing. Naruto could only watch in confusion, and if he didn’t know better, he would have thought the Hokage forgot about him. Thankfully he didn’t have to wait too long.

Passing the scroll to Naruto, Hiruzen said, “Here. This scroll contains a very powerful jutsu. I’m giving this to you as you might be able to use it with your seal, and it might open up new avenues for you. After you learn the technique, I only ask that you destroy the scroll, and you won’t teach this to anyone else without the reigning Hokage’s permission. It is one of Konoha’s secret jutsu, requires a hefty amount of chakra and control.”

Naruto looked at the scroll in surprise. He had to stop his hand from shaking. After forcefully calming down, he was about to ask more about the technique, but the Hokage interrupted him before he could, “It might take some time for you to learn it, so don’t expect quick results. Alright, you are dismissed.”

“I will try my best, Hokage-sama.” Bowing slightly, Naruto walked out of the room,

After dismissing Naruto, Hiruzen fell into deep thought. The meeting he just had with the young chunin had been very enlightening. There were many concerning aspects to the whole encounter. Aside from the most apparent being the seal, it was the fact that Naruto appeared far more distrustful than he had imagined. He came to him, the hokage, for treatment and opted out of going to the hospital; it clearly showed that he was on some level, not trusting of the village and its citizens.

That was a very bleak thought. If you couldn’t trust your homeland for help, would you be willing to put down your life on the line to defend it?

The other more concerning part was his recklessness. Shinobi as a whole were expected to be both somewhat reckless and cautious when the situation demands it; otherwise, they would be ineffective. But Naruto seemed to lack that caution. Aside from tampering with the Kyuubi’s chakra, it was his latest stunt of messing with his tenketsu that was worrying. This time he might have been lucky that his body was strong enough to heal back, but next time, he might not be so successful. It was now he realised that the unfortunate isolation Naruto suffered through was already proving to be a problem.

There was no one in Naruto’s life who would be able to dissuade him from committing such dangerous experiments. He knew for a fact that if Kushina were alive, she would punt Naruto from one end of the village to the other just for the thought of doing this. If only Naruto trusted him more, he could have provided him with a medic who could have helped him.

Picking up his brush, he quickly penned a letter and called an Anbu to send this message to Jiraya using a messenger hawk. He believed they could no longer delay this matter. After some thought, he called his secretary to send for one of the most intelligent men in Konoha for some much-needed insight, one Shikaku Nara.

* * *

Naruto resisted the urge to open the scroll right in front of the Hokage’s office. Since he was in the Hokage tower, he thought it better to first determine if Gai was in Konoha or out on a mission with his genin team. The process was usually quite troublesome since he was a chunin, and there was no way the mission department would give him the relevant information about a senior shinobi’s schedule for personal reasons. Normally he would have to go through the official channels. However, since he required the information on the Hokage’s suggestion, he just had to ask the Hokage’s secretary to expedite the process. Thankfully, not too long after, he left the building with the knowledge of Gai’s whereabouts in his head.

Making his way towards one of Konoha’s many training grounds, he quickly arrived at this destination. The aforementioned training ground was occupied by Gai and three others who he assumed to be Gai’s genin team. At a cursory glance, he found them to be intriguing or at least found one of them to be far more interesting than the others. It wasn’t the Hyuuga or the girl practising her shuriken-jutsu; it was the third one, leaping around a training post, a whirlwind of flurrying punches and flying kicks, the boy, like his two teammates appeared to be about his own age. The odd thing was his appearance. From his clothing to his hairstyle, all of it was strangely similar to Gai’s.

Thinking the situation to be too bizarre, Naruto chose to focus on his current objective, he made a beeline towards Gai. Out of the corner of his eyes, he could see that the members of Gai’s team by now had stopped their individual practices and were staring at him, surreptitiously watching his march. Probably sensing his presence Gai who was training by doing push-ups using a single finger, stopped, and with his incredible strength, flipped up to his feet to loudly greet Naruto, “It is a pleasure to see you this fine afternoon Naruto-kun. How is your inner fire burning?”

“As good as it can be with a broken arm,” Naruto replied amusedly. Correctly guessing the Gai was asking about his wellbeing.

Gai, who seemed to have not noticed that little fact looked at what Naruto was talking about, and after confirming it, asked, “How did you get injured?”

“Messed up while training. It was stupid, really.”

“It’s alright, Naruto-kun, youth and mistakes go together.” Placing a hand on his hip and extending his other in a thumbs-up gesture, he declared with a blinding smile, “Don’t let your springtime of youth fade away!”

“Don’t I know it. In fact, that’s why I came here. I was wondering if you could help me with my problem.”

Gai, who was still smiling, suddenly shook as if he was electrified. With tears freely flooding out of his eyes, he suddenly screamed out loud, “Ohhh! What passion! It will be an honour Naruto-kun to help you in this youthful endeavour to overcome your weakness.”

Naruto could only smile wryly at Gai’s loud proclamation. He subtly signalled Gai towards the three genin.

Understanding his intent, Gai addressed his students with his usual gusto, “Alright, you three give me 20 laps rounds around the village. Take the usual route.”

With a shout of affirmation from the Gai lookalike and much quieter gestures from the other two, the trio swiftly left the field to complete their assignment.

“Now, how can I help you, Naruto-kun?”

“Are you familiar with the workings of the Yin-seal?” Naruto asked while showing Gai his seal by slightly shifting his headband to the side.

“I am ashamed to admit it, but I cannot claim to know the inner workings of your seal.”

“Well, I’ll put it simply… think of it as a battery of sorts, for chakra. It stores your chakra for emergencies, and usually, its capacity is larger than your chakra pool. That’s why it can also help you perform techniques that require more chakra than you possess. Mine though is slightly modified because of… you know.” Naruto explained.

“How so?” Gai asked.

“Well, it doesn’t store my own chakra, it stores Kyuubi’s. It also negates the usual side effects of using it.” Naruto added hastily, “Don’t worry, I have already cleared everything with the Hokage. In fact, he was the one who suggested your help with the two problems I have.” He didn’t want to go on a lengthy explanation right now.

“Let’s hear it then.”

Seeing that Gai wasn’t going to probe further, he quickly explained his problem hoping Gai would be able to help him.

Gai listened silently, and after Naruto was finished, carefully observed him. “From your description, I think I know what the problem is. Your body is too weak to handle the counterforce.”

“I thought so too. So, I have to focus on my physicals?”

“I’m not sure. You said you disintegrated the boulder, correct?” Seeing Naruto confirm, Gai continued, “That level of strength is far beyond my understanding. Don’t get me wrong, I can probably do the same amount of damage to a boulder, but that feat would require me to open a couple of gates.”

“I can’t just increase my strength and increase my limit to handle that much power?”

“I’m not confident that you could. Even with your impressive healing, there might be a limit to how much your body can handle before it breaks.”

Contrary to what Gai was saying, Naruto knew that because he was a jinchuriki and an Uzumaki, unlike others, he might just heal completely, but the process would not be overnight. Healing the minute damage might take months or years, and if he disregarded that, it might just pile up and fracture his body beyond repair.

“Say if I were to open the Gates would I be able to use that technique.”

Gai shook his head, “I would advise against that. Setting aside the question of whether you can even learn it. The technique is very dangerous as it violently pushes chakra through the body. With your already impressive reserves as well as the amount increased by the Kyuubi, even trying it would be highly dangerous.” He disliked telling people that they could not achieve something through just hard work and grit. “After all, no matter how much you train your physical body, training your inner organs is another matter. Even getting to the level of surviving the first gate might take you months or years of dedicated physical conditioning.”

Naruto could only be disappointed at that. He already had too many things to learn, piling something high level like the eight-gates was already pushing it and now knowing that even with months or years of training, he might not succeed. He couldn’t justify putting in time for that.

“Any alternatives?” Naruto asked hopefully.

“I can’t think of any. The only other person I know who could even close to punching as hard would be the Raikage using his chakra cloak, but that is a Kumo secret.” Gai said regretfully, “I’m sorry Naruto-kun I could not be of much help.”

“Don’t worry about it. On second thought, forget that. You were, in fact, quite helpful; now at least I know what the problem is and what I can’t do to correct it. I just have to find a workaround.”

Gai suddenly clasped Naruto’s shoulder with his hand, and once again, he was shedding rivers of tears, “Naruto-kun, you have such a youthful attitude. Still, I feel I have failed you, and the guilt I am feeling by being unable to help a friend is overwhelming. If there is anything else, Naruto-kun, feel free to tell me.

“Hey, I just remembered. I opened a weapon shop, so it would help me a lot if you could spread the word. Or if you want weapons, training equipment, or something, I can make it for you. Custom built to fit your requirements. I will give you a discount.” Naruto asked, unwilling to give up on the opportunity to advertise his shop.

Quickly thinking through the matter Gai said, “Well, I might have something for you. I don’t know if you can help me.”

“Lay it on me,” Naruto replied eagerly.

“I require a better alternative to the weights I use. These are made from a special metal from Iwa that’s very hard to come by, and they have a limit to how much they can weigh. So, do you have an alternative to this? Something that can restrain my body constantly?”

“I might have.” He continued without pause, “How about this. Show me your hand. Palm up.” Naruto took out a brush from somewhere and quickly drew a seal on Gai’s open hand, a swirl in the middle and five smaller ones on the tip of the fingers, linked together by running chains of kanji, “Alright, try to keep your hand open.”

Saying so, he activated the seal by lightly poking it with his finger.

Gai felt his hand wanting to curl up into a fist. Trying to keep it open, he started pumping chakra into his hands, boosting his strength. The pull was getting stronger by the minute; with veins in his arm, bulging, Gai kept resisting, lightly sweating under the strain. After a while, Naruto once again poked the seal to stop it.

“How did you do that?” Gai asked in wonder.

“I just reversed a normal seal.” Seeing that Gai didn’t understand, he elaborated, “When you seal something inside a sealing mark, it unfurls quickly, then after the job is done, it closes up. I just drew a seal that is open by default, and when activated, tries to close itself, that’s why you feel the strain. Now, I just have to adjust it so that the force it applies can be regulated and make it so that you can use it yourself. So what do you think?”

“Can you apply this to some kind of clothing or equipment I can wear?” Gai hopefully asked.

“I think I can. Give me a couple of days.” Naruto replied.

“Well then, I will thank you in advance,” Gai said jovially.

“Hey, I should be thanking you. You are my first customer, after all.” Naruto said gleefully.

After a quick goodbye, Naruto left. He walked slowly and absentmindedly as he was lost in thoughts of what to do. Right now, he couldn’t think of a way to use his new strength technique.

* * *

The three of them were on their sixteenth lap. Tenten, Neji, and Lee running together might seem odd considering the quantifiable difference in their physicals, but it was one of Gai-sensei’s newer instructions. It led to an interesting thought process between the members of Team Gai.

Lee took it as Gai-sensei, instructing him to encourage his team to give it their all and surpass their limits. His constant cheering, which while it was with good intentions, was getting on his teammates’ nerves.

Neji, on the other hand, was very unsatisfied with the arrangement because he felt it was restricting him too much, as he had to keep pace with Tenten. Sadly the fact that Lee also had to limit himself to keep pace with both his teammates was lost on him.

Tenten, loath as she was to admit it knew that her physicals were far from matching her team. But she wasn’t that concerned about it since her style wasn’t focused on raw speed or strength. She wished to gain mastery over all weapon arts and felt that she was well on her way. To her, the point of the exercise was not to push herself and try to and match her teammates; it was to build up more cohesion between them by curbing Lee’s enthusiasm and making Neji engage more with his team.

Thinking of it as her job to reign in Lee’s enthusiasm and break Neji’s arrogant silence as she saw herself as the glue holding the team together, she tried to start a conversation between them.

“So, who do you think that was?” She asked. She didn’t expound on who exactly she was talking about. Whatever the team’s fault may be, she knew they still had a level of understanding between them.

“Who cares?” Neji quipped. As far as he was concerned, the whole situation wasn’t worth his time.

Undeterred by Neji’s attitude Tenten continued, “Well don’t you think it’s weird?”

Lee, who by now was running backwards to face his teammates, asked, “What do you mean, Tenten?”

“That boy looked to be about our age, and I feel like I remember him from somewhere. Gai-sensei was also acting very familiar with him. Do you think apart from us, Gai-sensei has other students?”

“I don’t think so. A jonin can only have a single genin team.” Neji said.

“Well, Gai-sensei could have taken him as a private student.” Tenten insisted.

It was all that was needed to get Lee’s enthusiasm to another level, “Yosh! Gai-sensei is so incredible. It would make sense that he took other students under his wings to impart his youthful teachings. With Gai-sensei as a teacher, that boy should be quite strong.”

Neji scoffed at the thought; just because one had a good teacher didn’t mean they would be strong. “I doubt it. Didn’t you see he had a broken arm? Getting a serious injury like that shows that he is nothing special.”

Tenten tried to dissuade him. “Don’t say that, Neji. He might have gotten hurt on a dangerous mission.”

“A genin wouldn’t be allowed to go on a dangerous mission,” Neji stated.

“Missions go wrong all the time because of faulty information,” Tenten said irritably.

“Let us complete our laps quickly and see for ourselves then,” Lee interjected effectively halting his companions from fighting.

They discovered that by the time they had finished their workout and returned to the field, the boy had just left, and Gai-sensei was back to doing push-ups. Seeing no other choice, Tenten decided to directly ask her sensei, “Gai-sensei, who was that?”

“Are you talking about Naruto-kun?” Gai asked as he continued with his training regimen.

Tenten felt he had heard the name somewhere, “Yeah, that redhead boy.”

“You don’t know? He was in the academy a year before you,” Gai said.

“He was? Well, we didn’t usually interact with anyone from the class above or below ours. So he is older than us?” Tenten said.

Gai thought for a while. To him, all of the kids from his students’ generation looked to be the same age. But, because he knew of Naruto and the circumstances of his birth, he answered correctly, “No, he is your age. He just got enrolled into the academy a year earlier.”

“So, is he your student or something?”

At this, Gai gave a boisterous laugh, “No. Naruto-kun is a friend of mine. He is a chunin.”

Neji disregarded that last bit as an indication of Naruto’s strength, so what if this Naruto was a chunin. He knew plenty of chunin level shinobi, mostly from his clan. If not for Gai-sensei holding him back a year, he would have been promoted by now. These thoughts were slightly mirrored by Tenten too, she knew how strong an average chunin was, and she had trouble thinking that anyone their age could be stronger than Neji.

Guessing his genin’s thoughts and thinking it would be beneficial for them to know that there was always someone stronger, he continued, “He is quite strong too. Even I might have trouble fighting him.” Well, at least without opening the gates. He had no way to confidently say how strong Naruto was.

That statement caught their attention. Gai-sensei was a proud and honest person. They knew he wouldn’t lie to them. So, if he was admitting Naruto as an equal, then that told them a lot.

In disbelief, whirling around, Neji quickly activated his byakugan, trying to get a clue about Naruto’s strength. Using his telescopic power, he attempted to find Naruto. It only took him a moment to do so, seeing that Naruto seemed to be walking slowly, deep in thought.

He focused on the boy, and he was astonished at the amount of chakra he could see. It was so much. He couldn’t think of anyone that came close to the amount; maybe the hokage might.

He was further surprised when Naruto’s silhouette seemed to turn around and stare at his direction for a brief moment. To his utter disbelief, he watched as Naruto’s chakra unfurled and increased exponentially. With a brief moment of activity in his chakra network, Naruto disappeared, outside the range of his byakugan, using shunshin.

 _‘Did he sense me?’_ Neji was still contemplating how that could be since the byakugan was unparalleled at spying when he heard his sensei’s voice.

“Neji,” Gai said with a look of disappointment set on his face. His unsaid message was clear.

Neji scowled and looked away. He knew it was a blunder on his part to spy on a fellow shinobi of the leaf. Otherwise, if the Hyuuga wantonly used their dojutsu on the people of the village, it would cost them a lot of goodwill amongst others.

“Gai-sensei, I would like to have a youthful spar with Naruto-san,” Lee asked loudly. He was unaware of Neji’s faux pas as he was busy getting pumped up about finding a strong opponent.

Hearing his student’s request, Gai immediately said, “Well, Lee, my youthful student, I will see if I can arrange it. But first, you must prepare yourself to face him. Don’t take him lightly; Naruto-kun is a strong shinobi so let us do our best and train hard.”

“Yosh!” Lee again screamed with an inner fire burning in his eyes.

* * *

Naruto reappeared inside an alleyway as he used the body flicker technique to escape the Hyuuga kid’s spying. He wondered why he would try to use his byakugan on him. He hadn’t sensed anything malicious, but he did feel a dense cloud of superiority and inferiority complex mixed in. He wondered if he should look into the boy’s background. Shelving the thought as he had far more important things to do, Naruto was just about to continue on his way, when he felt a sickly feeling.

It was horrible, an abomination. It was glee, a sense of joy born from the suffering of others. The pure tone of happiness that he could not feel with his ability brought down to his sensory range by being mixed with sadistic pleasure. Naruto’s gaze snapped towards the offender, a middle-aged man, rough-looking worker, smiling nastily at the sight of his broken hand. A civilian.

Misguided and misinformed he might be about the burden of a jinchuriki, but at this moment all Naruto wanted to do was lash out.

His body was lighter than usual, but his steps heavier. With each step, he left a deep imprint on the ground. Snarling, he walked slowly, he closed in towards the civilian man, his gaze set, his hands clenched. He watched as the man backed onto the wall behind pressing his body against it, cowering. Fear seemed to seize hold of every part of his body.

Naruto stopped at an arm's length. He wanted to reach out but to do what he didn’t know. Hurt him, maybe, or to ask him why? He wasn't sure.

Sighing, he jumped up to the roof, disappearing from the alley, leaving the shivering man behind.

Perching on top of the roof Naruto groaned in disgust, he had almost lost control. It was true that the unwarranted hate was crushing, but he knew he was better than to stoop to their level. It just that he hated the fact that a positive emotion of happiness could be warped so much and that he was the target of something so vile.

Today hasn’t been a good day. It had started out quite alright. He enjoyed the morning swim with Ino, he loved his new shop, but the broken arm was a bummer. The whole deal with his seal had been a disaster, the only good thing coming out of it was knowing that the Hokage was worried. The hokage had checked the eight trigrams seal on multiple occasions before, and Naruto had figured out that the seal was designed as a flood gate from his observations. Knowing that the seal could be opened and closed led him to an uneasy realisation.

Someone held the key to his seal. Someone who can on a whim allow the Kyuubi to exert more influence on him or shut down his ability to detect negative emotions altogether. He wanted to know who that was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again I might post the other two chapters in a few hours but editing a single chapter takes time so I might post it tomorrow or something. Also, I've been wondering if this fic is an AU or if this is a divergent fic I'm confused, so if anyone knows please tell me. I want to update it in my summary.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is part of a triple release. So before reading this chapter make sure you have read chapter 10.

Naruto leisurely walked towards a tree, near the river bed. The soft rustling of the leaves by the slow wind, the languid splashes of water hitting the rocks, rays of sunlight peeking through the clouds produced a strong hypnotic effect, the day was warm and comfortable; Naruto was desperately fighting drowsiness. He had much to do.

For instance, right now he was struggling to figure out what to do next with his training; the new revelation that he was so close to an incredible technique only to later find out that the outcome was doomed from the start was disheartening. Whatever he might have said to Gai he felt worn down after agonising about the mechanics of implementing the Yin-seal and applying it correctly. He had been ready to just be done with it. After grandma Mito had passed on, he had spent close to a year on it, time he could have spent furthering his mastery of the sword or his chains.

He had found the strength technique in the library a while back, and he had felt that with some creative thinking, he would have gained a way to use it, giving him a significant boost. He had been so proud over his accomplishment. Now he had achieved near-perfect chakra control, but it appeared to be useless.

Naruto sighed, nestling himself by leaning back on a tree trunk he enjoyed the evening sunset. The setting sun partially obstructed by the dense trees was colouring everything with a beautiful shade of orange.

Absentmindedly, he took out a pencil and a small notebook from his pants pocket, a handy water-proof writing medium; carrying the two everywhere was a habit he had actively cultivated.

On a new page, he wrote the words perfect chakra control, encircling it he then proceeded to draw a line coming out from it. Genjutsu. After thinking about it a bit, he crossed that out. With his newfound control, if he detected the effects of an illusion, he could quickly dispel it but casting one was another matter. Similar to fuinjutsu where knowing a simple seal was not enough, as more often than not, they had to be tailored according to the environment and the opponent, casting genjutsu was a very involved process. It would take too much time for him to be proficient in it. He already had his hands full.

Drawing another line, he wrote the most obvious beneficiary of chakra control, medical ninjutsu. With his healing, it wasn’t much help to him, and the amount of studying he would have to do was astronomical. He didn’t have the stomach for it, either. All that blood, flesh, the red stuff and the even grosser yellow stuff in the human body were too much for him to handle. A short glimpse was somewhat okay with him but looking at the squishy innards for any longer than that was enough to make him puke his guts out.

Sighing, he was about to cross it out too, when a memory flashed through his mind. Kotetsu with his leg impaled, blood flowing freely out of the wound, staining his hands. He could smell the scent of metal filling his lungs, flinching he bought his fingers to his nose and tentatively touched above his lips. Sighing in relief, he pulled his hand back, at least his nose wasn’t bleeding.

Naruto slowly leaned back, scooting down, he sprawled on the soft ground. Medics, he had a great deal of respect for the profession, destruction was easy, but mending something already broken was difficult. He didn’t think he had an affinity towards it. He knew his limitations, stuff like anatomy and biology looked like sorcery to him. Laying his open notebook on his chest faced down, he let both his hands comb through the grass. _‘Maybe, I could learn a little bit. Just enough to help out in an emergency, clean up an open wound, stitch it back, the simple stuff. But who would be willing to teach me?’_

Summoning a considerable amount of willpower to get back to work rather than take a nap, he flipped through his little notebook idly, and he chanced once again on another one of his frustrations. Written in big, bold letters, Hiraishin, pages after pages dedicated to finding the secret. Groaning he snappily closed his notebook and stuffed it back inside. Just by seeing that problem, he had lost all his motivation. He was done.

In the box his mother had left for him he had found a piece of cloth with a formula written on it. It took Mito a couple of minutes to conclude that the formula was describing something related to time and space. After a while, she concluded that it was a Hiraishin marker. She had seen a similar formula a couple of times before. The thing was, just the tag alone wasn’t enough for him to extrapolate a working version for his use.

Closing his eyes, he could almost entirely visualise the mark, which lent to the fact that he had stared at that piece of cloth for hours. It was made of a collection Kanji reading ‘endurance’ ‘love’ ‘of’ and ‘sword’. Merely decoration. Fuinjutsu and its complementary arts had nothing to do with what was written. It was purely a matter of personal preference; some people liked using kanji while some used geometrical shapes, there were even instances of people employing characters from lost languages. Naruto himself always incorporated a swirl in the middle with various kanji surrounding it.

It didn’t mean that he couldn’t decipher and breakdown a technique formula created by someone else, with enough time he could. There were some universal set of rules every mark or seal followed, like chakra flow and the positioning of the characters. It was just a matter of understanding how it all unfurled.

The problem was that unlike the others, Hiraishin had a single very complicated factor. Time. He could take the mark apart, but he couldn’t combine it back again as its construction didn’t make sense to him. Some of the parts were clearly being applied last, but somehow they were present even before the first symbol was drawn. It was as if the technique didn’t see time as moving forward. For it, time could also move backwards and sometimes it made time sit still.

He had a couple of theories how Tobirama Senju had achieved such an unbelievable feat- the first and most unlikely one was that he had ascended to a higher realm, something above the understanding of mere mortals. This theory was simply a product of his imagination running wild.

The second which he felt was far more likely was that he had a cheat sheet. Why did he think that? Well because of how the Uzumaki clan had designed the Reaper death seal. As much as he wanted to believe that the Uzumaki were awesome like that it wasn’t because of some genius, who figured out a way to contact the god of death. It was because of their heritage, a mask. It was a specific mask that they possessed which allowed them to make the seal. The mask still held untold mysteries and as soon as he was able to Naruto had secured it from the Uzumaki mask shrine. He had retrieved it using his summons when he had been near the shrine on one of his shinobi missions.

The third and another likely candidate was a projection of time and space into a lower plane; Naruto was quite proficient in projecting space into a simple sheet of paper but again time messed him up.

He could think and imagine a multitude of reasons, but one thing was clear to him without the resources that were available to Tobirama Senju or Minato Namikaze, he would be unable to make any headway. In his frustrations, out of sheer spite, he had even started working on a counter formula to stop hiraishin teleportation, that was until he realised that there was no one alive who could use the technique, making his efforts meaningless. On the bright side, unlike the case with the Yin-seal, he quickly figured out when to give up. He only wasted a weeks’ worth of time on that.

Quitting for the day Naruto decided to go to his shop and start the preparation to open it up, with his hand broken it might take him longer to get everything done in time. Or maybe he could take a long nap.

* * *

Inoichi made his way out of the interrogation room, his head filled with foreign memories. Quickly walking to his office room, he sat down behind his desk. Rubbing his temples, he tried to sift through the noise in his head.

The information he had uncovered seemed fantastical, fragmented visions of God and his Angel. He had briefly seen a memory of a man standing on a high tower, beneath him gathered the masses of weary villagers, lifting his hand he waved it above him gathering clouds, a torrent of rain following his will. Even now he felt an involuntary shiver run through him at the memory of otherworldly eyes sweeping over him.

He had only just gotten home last night, and he had planned to take it easy today, alas only this morning he received a summon from the hokage. He was tasked with gathering information from Aoi Rokusho and the other two Ame shinobi Naruto had captured. The matter was quite important as there had been no news coming out of Ame for years. All of them had assumed that Ame was still embroiled in a civil war, but it seemed they had been wrong. After going through some of the memories, he had quickly discovered that Hanzo of the Salamander had been dethroned by the one they called God. Inoichi was not convinced, although the new leader of Ame was certainly strong he had heard from his father the great strength the Shodaime and his greatest rival Madara Uchiha had wielded.

Still, the power he had witnessed from the eyes of the Ame shinobi had been something he had not seen in his own life. The only thing that came close to it was the destruction caused by the Kyuubi.

Feeling exhausted, he decided to clock out. He would have to make sure what he had seen was not an illusion, he would have to deconstruct the memories carefully, rushing through the process for something this large scale would be disastrous. The little bit of information he had gained was already quite enlightening; he would have to make sure that Naruto and his team got some extra benefits for securing the prisoners.

Thinking it was better for him to wind down for the day he decided a family gathering should do the trick. His princess had graduated, and so had the boys of his closest friends. It might seem like he was inconveniencing the others by springing such a last-minute arrangement, but he knew Choza and his family were always up for a celebration as long as there was plenty of food. Shikaku might find it troublesome, but with both him and Choza ganging on him, he could not do much.

Making some quick stops and discussing it with everyone, they had decided to meet up at the Akimichi compound and have a barbecue. Time passed quickly for Inoichi between subtly urging his wife to get ready and appeasing his daughter to go to the gathering. He couldn’t quite understand her reluctance. He thought of Shikaku and Choza to be as close to him as a family could be, so the rare chance they got to be merry, he cherished very much.

Hours later, after they had eaten their fill, Inoichi sat with his two friends to talk and catch up. With sake filling their cups, the topics of their discussion ranged from the political climate of Konoha to the mundane happenings of their individual businesses. It was a natural progression of their conversation that they found themselves talking about their children’s graduation from the academy and their new life as shinobi. A while later Choza decided to ask their kids directly how they were faring as newly minted genin.

“Chouji, Shikamaru, Ino come here,” He shouted loudly.

Chouji and Shikamaru had been lying down, sprawled on the ground gazing silently at the stars and after hearing the call reluctantly walked towards them. Ino, on the other hand, seemed to have not heard them as she appeared to be engrossed in reading what looked to be a very heavy book.

_‘That’s unusual.’_ Inoichi thought. “Ino.” He called out. Ino looked around perplexedly, and it took her a while to register where the sound came from.

She walked over and asked, somewhat impatiently, “What is it?”

Chuckling amusedly at her attitude, Choza answered, “We just wanted to know how your first week as genin went by?”

Munching on after-meal snacks in the form of smoked barbecue flavoured chips, Chouji answered his father between bites, “It’s been fine. We had to do D-rank missions every day, and between those, we get to do some team practices. Still, I think Asuma-sensei should give us more breaks between training.”

“What are you talking about Chouji? We already spend about half of our time doing nothing. Asuma-sensei didn’t even teach us anything.” Ino interjected angrily.

“It’s only been a week Ino, what do you expect. I like how things are going.” Shikamaru said.

“Of course you would. All you do is sleep or play shogi with sensei.”

Shikamaru didn’t reply, it wasn’t that he had nothing to say it was because he knew whatever he did say would be of no use.

Seeing Ino getting progressively angry, Chouji decided to calm her down, “It’s fine Ino. Like Shikamaru said we are just starting out.”

“But then we will be left behind. I bet you that the other teams are training super hard.” Ino complained.

“I doubt it. Anyway aren’t you already learning a new jutsu, so it’s not like you aren’t training,” Shikamaru tried to reason.

“A new jutsu,” Inoichi asked in surprise, “Which one?”

“Body flicker,” Ino replied. She didn’t want her father to find out about it so soon, but now because of Shikamaru’s big mouth, the cat was out of the bag.

“That’s a weird technique to teach a genin, isn’t it?” Choza asked.

“Not necessarily.” Shikaku supplied lazily. “It might offer her a chance to create some distance, you know, as a setup for her mind-body transfer. Asuma might be trying to create a team strategy.”

“It wasn’t Asuma-sensei, who taught me, it was Naruto. It was my idea too, I asked him to teach me.” Ino said proudly after hearing Shikaku’s explanation. She knew she was smart.

“He did?” Inoichi asked. “I will have to talk to him about this.” He knew Ino, she probably would have strong-armed Naruto into teaching her. Poor boy.

“You will not,” Ino huffed angrily, “you don’t teach me new techniques, I only know mind-body transfer and the three academy ones, what’s the problem if Naruto decided to teach me something.”

“B-but princess, it’s highly irresponsible to—”

“Irresponsible! Are you saying Naruto is irresponsible? Didn’t you say I should learn from him about responsibility when he became a chunin last year or are you saying that I am the irresponsible one?” She barked. Her voice was rising in both pitch and volume. She knew she was being somewhat unreasonable but the whole week as a genin had been a giant let down for her. She wasn’t going to let her father talk Naruto out of teaching her new stuff anymore.

“No dear, nothing like that,” Inoichi said quickly, “I just want you to be safe. Naruto, as mature as he might be, doesn’t have experience in teaching others. Things that might make sense to him don’t mean they might be the same for you. Shinobi techniques are dangerous, if you learned something incorrectly, it might be disastrous.” Inoichi tried to placate his daughter.

“I’m sure Naruto understands that Inoichi, the boy is quite considerate. Never asked me to teach him anything.” Shikaku drawled.

“You know Naruto?” Ino asked in wonderment, ignoring the information that only supplied to the fact that both Shikamaru and his father were too lazy sometimes.

“I was his jonin instructor. You didn’t know? I thought you were close friends,” Shikaku said.

“He never tells me anything, didn’t even tell me about how boring D-rank missions are. I don’t even know who his teammates were,” Ino complained. “He likes to keep secrets from me because he knows I hate it.”

“Don’t be so harsh on him. The boy has a very complicated life, so it’s no wonder he would do that. I don’t think there is anyone alive who truly knows him.” Shikaku said.

“Shikaku, follow me. I think we need more wood for the fire.” Inoichi interjected. Pulling Shikaku, rather forcibly to his feet, he led him to the nearby shed. Making sure no one was listening, he said, “What the hell do you think you’re doing.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Shikaku drawled.

“Don’t try to act stupid, Shikaku, saying those things about Naruto in front of Ino. You are practically goading her to try and find Naruto’s secrets.” Inoichi hissed.

“And what is wrong with that. The boy is too closed off for his own good. I know you understand that he needs a friend he can open up to, preferably someone his own age.” Shikaku replied seriously.

“I don’t want anyone meddling with him, he is doing good on his own. I believe in him he will come around, he is already far more comfortable around my family than when I first met him. It has been a lot of work to earn his trust, nosing around in his personal business might make him think it was for an ulterior motive.” Inoichi said.

“We don’t have time, things are changing, our kids are growing up, sooner or later the younger generation will come to know about him, and I don’t want their impression of him to be tinged by the fox. I don’t know how he is so adjusted, I would have thought with the level of loneliness he had suffered he would be more resentful, hostile even.”

“You are just troubled because you think he is too secretive,” Inoichi said, harsh accusation tinging his voice.

“You should be too. Whether you like it or not, Naruto is dangerous. We have heard stories about the jinchuriki of other villages, they go wild all the time. We can’t afford anything like that happening, not anymore, it was a miracle that the Fourth was capable enough to contain it once, we don’t know if we could do it again. Konoha has no knowledge of how to keep a jinchuriki, all we can do is make sure Naruto remains stable and loyal by whatever means necessary.” Shikaku picked up a couple of pieces of wood and walked past him, “Don’t let your affection for him cloud your judgement Inoichi, the village always comes first.”

Inoichi leaned on the door of the shed as he tried to clear his head from the effects of alcohol. He was no longer in the mood to drink anymore. Looking at the retreating back of his best friend all he could do was murmur softly, “I would like to know if you could make a choice so easily if it was between your family and the village, Shikaku.”

* * *

Curling a massive barbell with his single hand, the Raikage absentmindedly flipped through some paperwork. It was a tiresome task that he would have to slough through for the majority of the day before he could free up some time to do some training. His attention was diverted when his secretary walked in and placed a new file in front of him.

“Some important information just came through,” Mabui said.

A looked through the contents of the document, his eyes going quicker and quicker through it as he went on. He tossed the massive barbell to the side, cracking the floor of his office as he clutched the document with both hands. He turned to Mabui, “Call Bee and Yugito here.”

“They should be arriving any minute now.” She informed him succinctly.

A nodded, he was immensely grateful that he had the foresight to appoint Mabui as his secretary.

It was Yugito who silently arrived first, shortly followed by Bee. After receiving a salute from Yugito, and a greeting in the form of a tiresome rap, the Raikage said, “We have a confirmation of the Kyuubi’s jinchuriki. Konoha, Naruto Uzumaki, chunin, 13 years old.”

“How sure are we?” Yugito asked.

“No known sighting of him using the bijuu’s power.”

“I don’t understand then. Didn’t we already have multiple candidates before? What changed?”

“New information came. The source isn’t reliable, but I’m inclined to believe it, the evidence speaks for itself.” A said seriously.

“Brother. Why ya speakin’ in tongues? Blowing out hot air from your iron lungs.” Bee interjected his hands flying in ridiculous motions on beats only he could hear.

“Shut up Bee.” Raikage roared angrily before continuing, “The Naruto brat, he is the son of the Yellow Flash and Kushina Uzumaki, seeing that he is the child of a Hokage he has been hidden too well. He has always been top of our suspect list, so I’m inclined to believe he is a jinchuriki.”

“So what’s the evidence?” Yugito asked.

A copy of medical files from the Konoha academy, our informant received all three of them, Minato Namikaze, Kushina Uzumaki, and Naruto Uzumaki.”

Yugito marvelled, “You’re telling me that our informant got the medical files of the Fourth Hokage. That seems highly unlikely. It would be more likely that the document has been doctored.”

“Yeah Yugito is right you’ll be a fool to think otherwise.” Bee supplied his own thoughts on the matter.

The Raikage clenched hard at the side of the table, cracking it, “I know that. But all of this seems too coincidental. Kyuubi’s attack, Fourth Hokage’s death, the initial reports of an Uzumaki jinchuriki, then after some time as if someone was trying to muddy the water several other candidates pop-up, all children too. Think about it, why would someone seal the Kyuubi in a child, wouldn’t it be better to seal it inside a teenager, who could learn to use it like you two.”

Thinking for a moment, Yugito said, “It does seem suspicious. So, what do you want to do about him?”

“We can try to capture him.”

“Can we capture a jinchuriki without alerting Konoha?” Yugito asked doubtfully. To her, neither Konoha nor a jinchuriki was to be taken lightly.

“The brat doesn’t seem too strong according to the intel. A couple of days ago, he barely survived against a group of chunin and a Jonin from a no-name village. Minato Namikaze was stronger than the kid at that age. He stopped the capture attempt of Kushina Uzumaki as a genin.” A waved off her concerns.

“Don’t be sleepin’ on him, brother.” Bee said solemnly, “You don’t know him; if he is a jinchuriki from birth than he is carrying a burden that would break a man.”

Killer Bee knew his brother was somewhat blind when it came to other Jinchuriki, he was biased towards him because of their bond. But the others, he believed them to be a tool to the village and nothing more, even Yugito wasn’t an exception. Sure as a shinobi he accepted that he was a weapon for the village, but why was it that jinchuriki were asked to be something more, why were they asked to be the demon itself. The Raikage and the cloud village were accepting of him and Yugito, but even after all these years, they were far from understanding what it meant to be a host.

Bee always felt that he was blessed; Gyuuki was understanding, stubborn but understanding. As much as he would love to brag that it was all his doing, he knew that if it was anyone other than the Hachibi, he would not have succeeded in befriending it. What little he had gathered from when his friend had talked about its family, indicated that the others were not so accepting of partnering with humans. He just wished his brother would try and understand.

Seeing the intensity his normally easy-going brother punctuated his caution with, A relented, “What can you tell me about the kyuubi?” He asked as that was the main reason he had called them. It was so they could convene with their beasts.

Understanding their purpose, both Bee and Yugito closed their eyes and sat there silently.

A tapped his fingers anxiously on his table, things were never quick and straightforward with the bijuu. At least in Bee’s case, since his brother had subdued the Hachibi, he expected a swifter response. Thankfully, for his sanity’s sake, it didn’t take them too long.

Bee stretched lightly as if to regain a better sense of his body. Shaking his head in negative, he said, “Number Eight doesn’t wanna talk about Mister Nine. Unlike you and I, his connection with his brother isn’t fine.”

Yugito supplied promptly, “Matatabi is willing to talk a little bit about the Kyuubi, in exchange it wants to stretch its legs.”

Before the Raikage could retort Bee piped up, “Stop Bro, before you make your answer ice, I’ll keep them company, get some exercise. Shits getting boring.”

Relenting as he was confident that Bee would be able to keep the Nibi in check, A asked Yugito, “How strong is it?”

After a couple of seconds, Yugito answered, “Matatabi says it’s the strongest.”

Bee was startled, “Gyuuki ain’t down with that assessment.”

Yugito scoffed, “Matatabi said the Hachibi would claim that.” Turning to A, she continued, “Kyuubi is stronger, faster and bigger than any of the other bijuu.”

“By how much.”

Yugito hesitated before answering, “Absurdly so.”

A frowned, “What’s so special about it?”

“Nothing easily visible, but it might have the strongest ability of all the others. Kyuubi has an innate understanding of chakra.”

“That’s a very vague ability.”

“Matatabi doesn’t understand it fully either, all it says is that Kyuubi without even drawing on a special power could bring down the others with little effort.” Sensing the underlying worry, she supplied, “There’s no chance of the Kyuubi partnering with its jinchuriki. It’s almost as bad as the Ichibi.”

“That’s good then,” A said. No matter how strong a bijuu might be, a jinchuriki was different form its beast. Even a perfect jinchuriki like his brother was only capable of drawing a small part of his bijuu’s power. Visibly relaxed he continued, “We will leave him alone for a while, no need to stir the nest ourselves. It might be better to leave it to the others, no matter what happens if we keep an eye from a distance we might get an opportunity. We’ll just spread the news about the kid and his connection to the Yellow Flash around the elemental nations.”

Although he hated backing down, he could feel a slight shift in the air. Throughout the history of the hidden villages, the only thing that had been unchanging was war. He could feel another one coming. As the leader of the strongest nation, he would do all in his power to make sure that this time Kumo came out on top.

* * *

Naruto had officially opened the shop yesterday, it took him days to properly set it up. At least halfway through his arm had healed, allowing him to speed up the process. He still had no customers, but he wasn’t worried, he had known for a fact that he would receive very little traffic. Money wasn’t his goal, it was to spread the name of the Uzumaki clan once more.

Finishing the usual workload and cleaning the countertop for the day Naruto plopped down on the chair behind it. Pulling out the scroll he was given by the Hokage and a book on basic genjutsu he had acquired from the shinobi library, he readied himself mentally to dive back into his new branch of study. Admittedly he was having a very difficult time with the subject. Reading through the mechanics of the jutsu had sent his head spinning. It all looked like magic to him, resigning himself he had grudgingly taken the task to read through the basics of genjutsu.

Naruto knew he was only digging himself in deeper, but he was just unwilling to give up on all the work he had put in the seal, and the fruit the hokage had dangled in front of him was very juicy. Bringer of Darkness was too good to pass up, it just sounded so cool, whoever came up with the technique had an excellent naming sense.

Naruto was pulled out of his musings from the chiming of a bell. He looked towards the entrance of the shop and sensing no negative emotions relaxed. With their eyes wandering curiously, two people entered, a boy and a girl he recognised as Gai’s student. Smiling pleasantly, he greeted his potential customers.

“Welcome to Uzumaki Arms. You are Gai’s genin team, right?”

“Yes! Uzumaki-san.” Lee declared, “I am Konoha’s Beautiful Green Wild Beast, Genin Rock Lee, and this is my youthful teammate Tenten.”

“Well, I’m Naruto Uzumaki, chunin.” Naruto tacked on awkwardly, he wasn’t used to such treatment, “You don’t have to be so formal with me. Call me Naruto.”

“I understand Naruto-san,” Lee exclaimed.

“Anyway, how can I help you, do you want some training equipment, weapons, or can I interest you in seals?” He said looking at the girl in the back who was busy scrutinising his shop and the merchandise displayed, with extreme concentration. She looked to be restraining herself from touching everything. Now that Naruto looked closely, he recognised the girl. Years before, when they were kids, she had been one of the many kids who had rejected his company in the playground.

The girl suddenly walked up to him and asked, “Is this a new shop? Why am I asking that? Of course, it is. I know all the weapon shops in Konoha.” Looking around, she continued breathlessly, “Where did you get these weapons, I can recognise the works of all the smiths from Land of Fire but the ones here are so distinctly different. They are so beautiful, but some of the ones here look far more ornamental than necessary, why is that? Is this the work of some from foreign smith, maybe from Kiri? I heard they had some unconventional types of weaponry.”

“Uhh, I will try and answer all I can,” Naruto said uncertainly, “This is a new shop, I’m the owner as well as the one who forged these weapons. The weapons are so ornamental here because they are a showcase of my ability. I don’t sell standard mass-produced weapons because I don’t have a ton of time. I create equipment, weapons and seals on demand, whether it is for shinobi business or for display. I can also make replicas of famous weapons and armours.”

“So, all you make is some flashy stuff,” Tenten asked in disappointment.

“I didn’t say that.” Walking towards a display case he opened the latch, “You know about weapons right? Try these out.”

Tenten walked forward and looked inside. Twelve kunai, evenly spaced apart, were laid down in a neat row inside. She gently picked one, the blade of the kunai was standard in length, the spine was darker in colour while the edges held a lighter shade. The gradual transition was beautiful.

“Why did you use two different types of metals?” Tenten asked.

“You know your stuff, The edge of the kunai is made of chakra metal the spine is regular steel. That’s why the set is cheaper than one made of pure chakra conducting steel. The spine is also softer, it has more give, giving the kunai more impact resistance.”

“Can I?” Tenten asked, picking another one.

“Go ahead,” Naruto said as he backed up a bit.

She sent a kunai twirling up in the air, as it reached the apex, she sent the other one straight up with more speed. The later one hit the twirling kunai, sending it behind them, hitting the bell above the door. The other one she caught with her off-hand.

“Whoa. That was amazing,” Naruto exclaimed.

Smirking Tenten quipped, “It was nothing.”

Naruto retrieved the kunai and showed it to the others. “See no damage, not even a scratch.”

“These are good, I like them, perfect balance, and they are identical. I didn’t have to adjust my aim.”

“Right! Would you like to but these or if you want I can make something special for you. How about it?”

Tenten looked at the set of kunai, the beautiful lines, the sharp and deadly edge reflecting the light just right. Clenching her hand, she reluctantly put the kunai back. “I wish I could, but I don’t have that kind of money.”

“Oh, well next time then. I think you should save some money and commission something. You are a true connoisseur of weapons, and it would be an honour to make something for you.” Naruto said as he closed the latch.

Addressing Lee, who was standing on the side, silently watching the interaction, Naruto asked, “What about you. After watching this youthful display is your inner fire burning beautifully, Lee, are you overcome with a fervent desire to buy something.”

Lee was visibly distraught. With shaking fists and watery eyes, he cried out loud, “Oh! Forgive me, Naruto-san. I am so ashamed at my short-sightedness. If only I had known of your incredible talents beforehand, I would have worked harder and saved my money to give you patronage. Alas, today we came here to tell you that Gai-sensei wished to talk to you about an important matter.”

Seeing the effect of his words on Lee Naruto did feel a bit sorry, but he quickly consoled himself, it wasn’t as if he as swindling him. He wouldn’t do that to anyone, it was a matter of pride in his craft.

“Don’t worry Lee, maybe next time. Let me lock up my shop, we can leave right now. I have to ask Gai about a couple of things.” Naruto said ushering them out and locking the door behind him. He had almost finalised the design for the suit he planned to make for Gai he just needed to tweak it a bit, maybe find out a bit more about Gai’s training method.

The walk to the training field was weird for Naruto. Tenten kept asking him about his forging techniques, as well as discussing other popular weapons throughout the ages. Lee had apparently decided that Naruto was a very youthful person and was talking to him about his training methods. Both of them were passionate people, he couldn’t begrudge them their enthusiasm.

“So is there something you need?” Naruto asked Gai as soon as he reached the training ground.

“Didn’t Tenten and Lee tell you?” Gai was surprised, knowing Lee’s youthful personality he believed Lee would have made his intention clear as soon as he saw Naruto, passionately declaring his desire to battle.

“I stopped Lee, Gai-sensei. I wanted you to ask Naruto-san on his behalf.” Tenten knew, not many people could digest the eccentric personalities of Gai-sensei and Lee. At least Naruto was familiar with the jonin and should be more receptive to his invitation for a spar.

“I see. Well, Naruto-kun, my student Lee, would like to ask you for a friendly spar. He is very passionate about his training and is always on the lookout to test his fists against a strong opponent.”

“Oh, well, I don’t mind, but I didn’t bring my equipment.” He could summon his sword, but he didn’t want to use a real sword for a spar against an unarmed opponent.

“No need to worry, if you don’t mind using regular weapons, Tenten here carries all sorts of items on her,” Gai said.

“Do you have a wooden sword?” Naruto asked Tenten.

“I do have one, but I’m afraid you will break it. Lee hits hard.” She said, pulling out a sword form her scroll.

Naruto took the sword and examined it carefully. The balance was good, it was slightly shorter than his own sword, but he could work with it.

“Don’t worry about it. If I break it, I will give you a better one.” Naruto told Tenten.

“Fine then, I will hold you to your word.” Tenten conceded. “Anything else, shuriken, kunai, senbon. I have everything.”

“No need. I don’t have a great aim to do any of the fancy moves. I can only chuck them straight.” He would rather use his chains or a water jutsu than try and aim with those things.

Taking his place in the middle of the ground, Naruto stood holding a loose stance, waiting. He ignored the spectators, Gai, Tenten and the Hyuuga kid, and focused his senses on his opponent.

“I’m ready,” Naruto said.

Nodding, Lee started jumping up and down in place, loosening the tension in his body. He always enjoyed the building anticipation before the fight kicked off. Abruptly without giving anything away, he moved, his body low to the ground, his right leg going forward, the other trailing behind for a moment before taking the lead, one of his hand placed behind his back, his stride quickly consuming the distance between them. Halfway through he threw a kunai from his concealed hand. Using the kunai as a distraction, he flew in with a kick. The move worked better when used against an unsuspecting opponent, but he would have to make do.

**_Dynamic Entry_**.

Calmly, tilting his head, Naruto ignored the kunai and raising his wooden sword intercepted the blow, moving his hand, dispersing the force, redirecting the kick downward in a single motion. Taking advantage of his opponent’s momentarily broken stance, he tried to bash his shoulder into Lee.

Hastily sidestepping, Lee threw a short punch, trying to regain his rhythm, only to be blocked again by the sword hitting his wrist, causing his fist to fly off course. Grasping the opportunity Naruto harshly jabbed him on the nose with the butt of his sword.

Naruto relaxed slightly as he allowed Lee to jump back and create distance. It seemed his opponent was holding back, “You have to do better than that, Lee.”

“I will Naruto-san. I—” Lee was interrupted from his passionate declaration by Gai.

“Lee! Drop your weights.” Gai said. Lee looked at him in surprise, so he continued, “The spar won’t go anywhere otherwise.”

Naruto curiously watched the situation unfold, his eyes widened in disbelief when Lee took off his weights and dropped them cracking the ground, and kicking up a massive dust cloud.

He looked at Gai, “These are the kind of weights you were talking about? I thought you meant things like you know…” holding both ends of his sword with each hand, he mimicked lifting up the sword over his head with great effort.

“No these are the weights I was talking about,” Gai replied swiftly.

“Well, I have to make further adjustments to my design then. I thought you wanted something that would stress your body for a short while, not something like this.” There were far better alternatives available to train your body. He couldn’t help but ask, “Why do you use these weights?”

“Lee has trouble remembering how to mould chakra to enhance his taijutsu. He has no talent in moulding and manipulating chakra. When I started training him, I put these weights on him, without using chakra he could not move, even now he has to constantly regulate his chakra to perform techniques.”

Looking at Lee Naruto understood, the weights were a learning aid, “Will he be using the seals I’m making?”

“Yes, after I test them.”

“Well, that’s just insulting.” Naruto said, “My shop’s main selling point is creating weapons and equipment to be perfect for the customer. You are seriously underestimating my craftsmanship. I will create a set for him as well, and it will be perfect.” Putting his hands on his hips, straightening his back, he declared, “Then you will know to never ever doubt the genius of Naruto Uzumaki the greatest Seal-master in the making.”

Turning to Lee, he continued, “Come at me, I want to see what you can do if I want to help you, don’t hold back.”

“Naruto-san you are so cool. Your brilliant fire has stoked the flames of my youth, here I come.” Lee shouted. He kicked the ground, instantly shattering it from the force.

As soon as he reached Naruto, he jumped, twisting his body as if a whirlwind he kicked with bone-shattering force.

Naruto tracked his movement with his eyes, he blocked the kick, and weaved through the new barrage of hits Lee was dishing out, he was forced to back down. It was getting harder by the minute to divert the blows raining down on him. Lee was relentless, kicking, swerving around to reach a blind-spot, punching, circling around him to attack his side.

Weathering through the assault, he understood Lee’s strong suit. It was surprising, Lee was fast but not absurdly so, it was his explosiveness that was extraordinary. Lee was capable of maintaining his speed even when turning at harsh angles, giving him a massive advantage in movement. Understanding the purpose of the seal he had promised to create, he thought it best to end the fight.

Pumping a bit more of his chakra into his system, he stepped in as Lee tried to kick him in the face, ducking under his sweeping leg he slashed upward, running his sword over Lee’s chest, cutting through the cloth, drawing a very thin line of blood.

“You lose Lee,” Naruto said.

“What a great fight! Lee, my youthful student you did great. You might have lost but do not despair, you just have to train harder,” Gai said boisterously. He knew letting the fight escalate would do no good, Lee might have a chance by opening the gates, but that was dangerous and unnecessary.

“Yes sir, Gai-sensei. I will take this defeat as a lesson.” Whipping around to face Naruto, he declared, “Next time Naruto-san victory will be mine.” He had enjoyed the spar, fighting Naruto was a lot different than his teammates and sensei. Naruto kept diverting and dispersing his attack, he could barely make solid contact. He vowed, next time he would be faster, stronger and more skilled.

Before Naruto could respond, he was stopped because for a brief minute, he felt a heavy strike on his senses as if a hammer was used to deal a blow on something deep within him. As he tried to make sense of it, he heard Neji speak to his teammate, “Give it up loser. No matter how much you train, you will never be able to beat him.”

Realising, who was the source of his sudden discomfort, he focused his attention on Neji, “Why do you think he won’t be able to ever defeat me?” It wasn’t that he disagreed with Neji, he had no intention of losing to anyone, but Neji’s tone and his feelings implied something more.

Neji looked at him and said stoically, “He’s an untalented loser, always has been, always will be. You are clearly more talented than him, he was destined to lose.”

“I won the fight that’s true, but that can be because I have more experience, I don’t understand where talent comes into this,” Naruto said. He was getting upset, and he wasn’t entirely sure why.

“Do not think of me as a fool like Lee, Uzumaki-san, these eyes of mine show me many things. I can see the true nature of others. I know you were holding back.” He continued, “Did you do it to spare his feelings I wonder if so I think that what you consider sportsmanship is cruelty. Those untalented should know their purpose; otherwise, they would die a meaningless death.”

Naruto let out a long breath to rein in his temper, “I was holding back, I won’t dent that, but I don’t think Lee was giving it his all either. No one is born strong, everyone needs to train hard. I have been training for years to get where I am now, who’s to say Lee wouldn’t be able to catch up to me. I don’t think you have a good reason to discourage someone from trying to do their best.”

“I never said training and hard-work weren’t required, but a person’s limitations are set at birth; there is no changing that. You could change a lot of things about yourself, your looks, your clothes, you could train harder, but some things can’t be changed, those that are inherent. People are judged by their true nature. It is the way of the world. We are who we are, and we must live with it.” Gesturing towards Lee as if to emphasise his point, he continued, “A loser will always be a loser, an outcast always an outcast, a servant always a servant. We are slaves to our destiny. Lee will always be a failure, trying to change himself is foolish, sooner or later in his pursuit of this idiocy he will kill himself.”

Naruto was feeling nauseous, he could taste bile, his thoughts spiralling, indifferent stares, silent jeers, shadows of malice and distrust swimming inside his head, he struggled to calm down. Neji’s emotions were bearing down on his psyche. He had no answers to his claims. Will he truly be an outcast for the rest of his life, unloved?

“ _You must remember those who love you Naru, when you feel yourself wavering. Remember me, remember your mother.”_

Drawing strength from his memories, straightening his back slightly, his inner turmoil resolved for the moment, Naruto distanced himself from Neji’s emotions. He said simply, “I see, and I assume you think that unless I stopped training, Lee would never be able to defeat me.”

“That is correct.”

“What about you then, can you defeat me?”

Neji didn’t even hesitate for a moment, “I can.”

Naruto looked around slightly he could see from the faces of the others that this had not been the first time Neji had said this to Lee. Tenten was looking at the ground refusing to look anyone in the eyes, Gai was expressionless looking at him as if wanting to see what he would do, Lee… Lee too was looking at him, but there was no hint of sadness or anger in his eyes. Lee, like the others, also chose silence, but Naruto could see a bright fire burning within him.

Smiling slightly, Naruto said, “I can tell you are wrong, Hyuuga-san.”

“About me being able to defeat you?” Neji asked contemptuously.

“That too, but no, you are wrong about something else.”

“And what is that?”

Laughing lightly, Naruto spoke, “How about a wager? We fight. If you defeat me, I’ll tell you what you are wrong about, and I will become your training partner for a whole month. I will let you test any technique you want on me. A living dummy if you will.”

Truthfully, Neji wasn’t that interested in the current offer, from Gai-sensei’s claim he had concluded that Naruto was strong. What he had found interesting about him was his boasts about being an expert in sealing. He had thought about changing the bet to get Naruto to look at his cage bird seal, but ultimately he decided against it. He could see that even if by some miracle Naruto succeeded in removing the seal as a branch member he would be put to death and made an example. It was his destiny to die, serving the main branch.

Still, it did not mean that he wouldn’t go down as the strongest Hyuuga to ever live. He wanted to leave a legacy behind that the strongest Hyuuga was not of the main branch but a lowly servant. He had his pride, “And what do you get if I lose?”

“If I defeat you, you will buy me a shirt like the one I’m wearing, you will also work part-time for me advertising my shop for a month.”

“This is an odd wager. I thought you would have asked me to apologise to Lee or something.” Thinking for a bit, he said, “Fine, I accept.”

“Alright then,” Naruto said as he calmly took out his hands from the sleeves of his haori, he truly wished there was a way he could avoid the trouble of doing so every time. Picking up a pebble, he asked, “When it touches the ground?”

Neji nodded, readying himself, seamlessly slipping into the stance for the gentle fist. It wouldn’t do him any favours if he decided to rush in, as he was sure his opponent would use some form of a long-range attack. It would be foolish to engage a Hyuuga in close-combat, it didn’t matter if Uzumaki was proficient with the sword, he only needed to slightly alter the path of the blade with his palm. Then he could disable the chakra point in his wrist seizing the movement of the muscles around the area rendering his opponent unable to hold on to his weapon.

He watched as the stone was thrown high up into the air and tracked its movement, just as it hit the ground he activated his Byakugan.

The world swirled around him into a familiar focus, every single detail vivid, there was no need to look, no need to disregard things and just focus on his opponent, without effort he could see all.

He tensed slightly ready to spring into motion when he saw the built-up of chakra inside Naruto’s pathway, anticipating a water style ninjutsu attack. He watched in irritation as rather than launch an attack Naruto deployed a different technique. Opening his mouth slightly, exhaling blue vapour from the corners of his mouth, Naruto released a dense mist, charged with chakra. A water release technique, with no offensive capability filling the area around them, obscuring everyone’s eyesight.

It was a mess, he couldn’t see. The chakra in the air was continually shifting, the slight change in the wind causing the mist to undulate. He was familiar with this tactic, it was similar to the one employed by the shinobi of Kiri; they were masters of it. Yet, the tactic was unsuccessful if used by others, because even if the mist obscured vision, the byakugan could still see better than any other eye. The fog also rendered chakra sensing useless, it was only successful when the Kiri shinobi employed the technique of silent killing with it, to obscure all sound and stalk their prey. Even in this dense mist, he was positive his vision was better than Naruto, it was a foolish gambit.

He concentrated on his vision, straining his ears, he waited, silently, he could see small clusters of denser chakra in the air. Suddenly, turning his torso, his hand moved, with his wrist twisting ever so slightly he struck behind him, making contact. The body he hit suddenly popped into a shower of water. Only a moment later all around him, he saw movement he couldn’t make sense of, thin, long ropes of dense chakra whipping around frenziedly. Before he could move something hard as if made of metal, coiled around his wrists and feet. In a whirlwind, the world around him turned upside down.

Eventually, the mist receded, and he could see the blue sky below him and grassy field above his head, along with the tip of a wooden sword pressing uncomfortably on his throat.

“You lose,” Naruto hummed thoughtfully, “Even though you lost I think I will still tell you what I think you were wrong about. You weren’t wrong about some people having more talent, you weren’t even wrong about some form of a limit being determined at birth, after all, I could never gain a byakugan by working my ass off and staring at stuff. What you are wrong about however is your ability to discern others worth, you could not see your own defeat how could you see others’. If you had said you weren’t confident in defeating me, then it would have meant that you could not discern my capability. The only way you could have been correct was if you would have accepted that you had no chance of defeating me, but you didn’t even entertain the idea, doesn’t this mean you didn’t understand your own destiny.”

Neji wasn’t sure what to think at the moment, the idea of losing hadn’t even crossed his mind beforehand, he had always believed himself to be strong. That was all he had, his strength. He didn’t know what was left for him without it. Eternal life of grovelling? Living in fear like the other branch members, he didn’t think he could live like that. Was that his destiny?

Naruto released his chains and spoke as if hearing his thoughts, “I don’t know much about destiny, and I don’t concern myself about it, because I believe it is beyond my understanding. What I do know is that the world is a very complex place, so much so, that even with your incredible eyes, you can only see so much of it. It’s far too hasty to put quick, little labels on first impressions. Try and find more about the things you want to label. Like those who you think are losers.” Tossing the wooden sword towards Tenten, he continued as an afterthought, “As for why I didn’t ask you to apologise to Lee? It’s because I believe Lee doesn’t need my help. Isn’t that right Lee?”

“Yes, Naruto-san, I will show my teammate that his way of thinking is unyouthful with my own strength,” Lee shouted with tears streaming down his eyes.

Neji watched Naruto turn back and leave. He could see through the tattered shirt, black marking on his back, he did not know what prompted him to ask or what he hoped to learn, but he shouted, “Do you think someone can change their—” he wanted to say destiny but he could not, for the first time in a while he was at a loss for words.

Naruto turned around and looked at him intently, he spoke slowly as if mulling over his words, “I know what it feels like to be judged for something you have no control over and… it sucks. I don’t know if I would ever be able to change what others think of me, but all I can say is, I’m unwilling to give up. Maybe I can make a small difference, it might not change my situation, but it might make it so that the person coming after me has an easier time.” Turning back, he continued on his way, laughing lightly he continued, “We can talk about it some more tomorrow when you come by in the evening for work. We will be designing pamphlets to promote my shop, I hope you have good penmanship, don’t be late.”

Neji didn’t know what Naruto’s problem was, he wondered if they were as grave as his own. He was tired of being a slave.

Gai looked at the whole scene somberly he truly felt he had made the right decision by not stepping in, but he didn’t feel any joy. “All of you are dismissed for today, rest up, we will continue our training tomorrow.” He needed a drink and the company of his friends. He needed to mourn the fact that these children saw the world as such a bleak place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more chapter to go. I think I'm dying from exhaustion.
> 
> Anyway, a couple of things about this chapter.
> 
> Killer Bee's dialogue. I have no knowledge of rap. So, I tried to basically write his dialogue in the form of couplets, but without matching the syllable count every time, as canonically Bee is supposed to be bad at rapping.
> 
> Please tell me if you think I did an okay job or not if you have any suggestion do tell me.
> 
> As for the two fights, if you think they were too quick, that was the point. I hate it when in fics where Naruto is supposed to be stronger than canon but he still struggles against inferior opponents. Five-gate Lee and chunin exam Neji are solid high chunin level shinobi, maybe even one step into the special jonin category. Naruto here is a special-jonin level fighter without going all out.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is part of a triple release. So before reading this chapter make sure you have read chapter 10 and 11.

Konoha’s intelligence division was located in a large building. It didn’t appear any different from the other official buildings, but there was a layer of unease always surrounding it. Naruto hated coming here, as he had no intention of meeting the more eccentric shinobi and kunoichi working here. However, right now, he had no choice as the hokage had previously ordered him to come here and provide details about Guren.

It was at least a small consolation that he only needed to visit the Analysis department, headed by one Inoichi Yamanaka, and not the other branches like torture and interrogation.

After filling some forms required to access the building, he was directed towards Inoichi’s office. He knocked on the door softly and entered, “Good morning Inoichi-san.”

“Naruto-kun, good morning. It’s good to see you. Come in.” Inoichi ushered him inside happily. “Would you like some tea? I just made some.” He asked.

“Allow me,” Naruto said as he hastily stood up and poured in some tea for both of them. It would be inappropriate for him to let Inoichi-san serve him.

Quietly enjoying the first few sips, Inoichi sat there in silence before speaking, “How are you doing? Everything’s fine?”

“More or less, nothing too bad,” Naruto said.

“Breaking your arm in multiple places, you consider that not bad,” Inoichi asked amusedly.

“How did you know about that.”

“I hear things.”

“and I was deliberately avoiding everyone until I healed,” Naruto said dejectedly.

“Don’t worry. I haven’t said anything about that to Yume or Ino,”

“Thanks, I don’t want to worry Yume-san,” Naruto was relieved to hear that, he didn’t want to sense the feeling of distress coming from that kind woman.

“Neither do I,” Inoichi agreed. “Speaking of worrying, I heard that you are training Ino.”

“She was mad at me, and in trying to make her happy, I kind of promised her training.”

“You know Naruto, that I have no problem with you being friends with her, but Ino is inquisitive and impulsive, and she doesn’t know about… it.” Inoichi delicately stated, “Her abilities as a Yamanaka are dangerous to both of you, so please be careful and avoid any instance of giving her an excuse of using her jutsu on you.”

“I understand,” Naruto said. Out of curiosity, he asked, “What would happen if she was successful in using her mind jutsu on me.”

“In theory, it can be done without an incident,” Inoichi said thoughtfully, “but I don’t want to take chances. Ino is not quite proficient with the jutsu, so I fear the worst-case scenario of her suffering trauma would be the most likely thing to happen.”

Naruto paled at hearing this, he quickly promised, “Don’t worry, I will make sure something like that doesn’t happen.”

“I believe you. Also, since we are on the subject, I would ask you to carefully consider what you teach her.”

“What do you mean?”

“Naruto-kun, you are a smart boy, so you must understand that teaching someone extends beyond just helping them learn the technique. You must also teach them when to use it. Take, for example, the body flicker you taught her, did you tell her that the technique can be easily countered by sensors or faster shinobi. It’s important to take the job of teaching seriously; lack of knowledge and experience can often lead to dire consequences.”

Naruto listened intently and tried to recall how he was taught, and winced at his negligence. Grandma Mito would always tell him about the background of the technique, its application, and as most of what he had learned from her were from her skill pool, she would give him anecdotes of where she had correctly and incorrectly used the technique in battle. There was merit in letting the students figure out some problems, but most of the basic shinobi techniques have been polished to perfection and should be taught as such. Shinobi life was a precious commodity; that’s why tutors and teachers were highly respected in Konoha.

Naruto answered solemnly, “I will do better next time. I will also teach her how to correctly use the body-flicker.”

“Thank you for taking the time to teach my daughter. She can be very curious.”

“It’s fine, no need to thank me,” Naruto replied embarrassedly. Although he decided not to mention to Inoichi that he had also told Ino about her lightning affinity. He would have to talk to her about that.

Inoichi smiled. He liked Naruto. The boy was hard-working and intelligent, “I extracted some memories from the three shinobi you captured, it has been a long process, but the results have been promising. Your squad might receive a reward.”

That was unexpected. Naruto was excited to tell Izumo and Kotetsu about it when they came back. Izumo had gone to the outpost where Kotetsu was hospitalised to keep him company. They were scheduled to come back, in a couple of days.

“That’s good. Anything interesting?” Naruto asked. He had been curious about the condition of Ame.

“I can’t tell you, it’s above even my own pay grade.”

Naruto was surprised. Inoichi was a department head; his position was above that of even the jonin elites. Only the hokage, his council, the anbu commander, and the jonin commander had more authority.

“Anyway, tell me the reason for your visit.”

A jonin shinobi with an unknown bloodline was an important matter. Not to mention Guren was part of the newly emerging shinobi force. Naruto took his time, giving thorough information on her.

After finishing up and bidding goodbye, he went for a bowl of ramen. As he sat there slurping on delicious ramen, he gave Ayame the gift he had purchased, which earned him a bone-crushing hug. He spent some time chatting with the Ichiraku’s even after he had finished eating.

Deciding to leave as he watched the evening rush come in, he paid for the meal and hopped off the stool. Taking to the rooftops, he quickly arrived home and settled on his couch. His home had filled up over the years after he had started making money from doing missions. He had bought some essentials as well as some items for comfort. The couch had been one of them; it was an expensive plush one, very comfortable.

He was about to settle down read some new books he had purchased when he heard a buzzing sound coming from his workroom. Recognising the origin of the sound from his memory, Naruto started panicking. Biting his thumb and going through the hand signs, he slammed his hand onto the ground drawing upon his chakra to summon his partner. Unexpectedly he felt more of his chakra drain out than usual whenever he summoned Umi.

With a puff of smoke, an old blue serpent with an impressive handlebar moustache appeared staring at him. “Young master Naruto, it would appear that you have been negligent of my lady's summons. She had been expecting you for a while, and I am deeply troubled to say that she had reached the limit of her patience. She is extremely displeased with your tardiness.”

“It’s not my fault.” Naruto protested, “I forgot. I just had a lot going on.”

Looking unimpressed the serpent continued, “Be that as it may, you have earned the ire of lady Kiyo, and it would be in your best interest to go meet her as soon as possible. I’m going to stay here. With the amount of chakra I possess, I can easily stay here for about two hours and still perform the summoning jutsu to bring you back. Please make preparations to leave. You have ten minutes.”

Resigned to his fate Naruto went into his workroom and found the still vibrating summoning contract. It was a giant scroll about his height and very thick. Unfurling it, he winced at the sight of numerous messages demanding his presence written on it.

Naruto rushed, setting up the required seal on the floor, that Akihito-san, the serpent present in his house, could use to summon him back. He had serious doubt that the serpent clan had working clocks. He was not so sure in their ability to know ten-minutes from five.

Proving his hunch correctly, Naruto abruptly disappeared in a small puff and reappeared somewhere else. He quickly sat down on the floor, nauseated by the teleportation.

“You are going to get scolded.”

Naruto heard a giddy voice. Looking up, he saw Umi smirking at him.

“How bad is it?” Naruto groaned.

“She’s furious. Apologise quickly and hope for the best.” She said, wriggling in place, “Come on, move, don’t make her wait any longer.”

Standing up, and using the walls as a support, Naruto made his way towards the inner chamber. The walls beside him moved periodically, and he could hear a faint, thumping sound. It was the reverberations of a heartbeat. Deep underneath the islands of whirlpool, swimming within the unseen depths, the giant serpent was the home of its people. The serpents of the depths possessed an unusual constitution allowing them to survive the water pressure outside, which he as a human could not.

As soon as he entered the inner chamber, he heard the angry voice of the most esteemed elder of the serpent clan questioning him.

“Finally, deemed us worthy of your presence, have you?”

Naruto watched as a slim, pale green serpent with shimmering scales, several meters long resting on a bed of pillows and cushions stir. Uncoiling gracefully, she disappeared and appeared without an indication before him. Floating in mid-air, with red ribbons of silk dancing around her, she watched him with glassy white eyes.

Fidgeting slightly, he answered, “I had a busy week, and I kinda forgot.”

“Stand still!” Lady Kiyo ordered, forcing Naruto to snap his back straight in attention, “I understand you are busy, and I get that you have a memory of a goldfish, but I expect you to honour your promise. Did you or did you not send word to me that you would come to meet me within a week.”

Naruto felt that comparing him to a goldfish was harsh, but he was genuinely afraid of her; she had been alive for a long time, even before his grandma Mito was born, “I’m sorry, elder. Won’t happen again.”

Kiyohime stared at him for a while before she said with a huff, “Fine, I will let you off this time because you are no different from a tadpole.”

“Hey, that’s unfair.” Naruto protested. He could let it slide once, but twice now, he had been, compared to a stupid animal. First a fish, then an amphibian.

“Is it. Look at you, unruly hair, sloppy clothing, and I can see grease stains on your sleeve. You look like a dirty urchin.” Kiyohime snapped.

Naruto was thoroughly embarrassed. He tried to pat down his hair, it was getting kinda long. As for his clothes, he was in his home lazing about, what did she expect. He didn’t know how she could see the grease stain he had gotten when eating ramen, he could barely see it, and the elder was blind.

“Enough chitchat, sit down, shut your eyes, and don’t move,” She ordered.

Naruto was familiar with the process and seeing that she was still quite angry, he didn’t dillydally. He sat down, cross-legged on the floor and closed his eyes. Trying to clear his mind, he fought the urge to move when he felt long fangs pierce the skin of his neck, injecting foreign chakra into his system. He focused all his attention on the tiny wisp of chakra moving, invading, rampaging inside his body. He needed to learn how the chakra felt and familiarise himself with its unique nature, quickly as time was short. To him, in a timeframe of what felt like seconds, the chakra disappeared, devoured by his own reserves, his body winning and annihilating the foreign invader.

“Now, focus on your surroundings, envision the soft ebb and flow of the nature around you. Lose your physical body in it. Try and find chakra like the one I gave you. Let your soul swim inside nature’s aether.”

Soft murmurs reached his ears, guiding him forward. He tried to follow, abandoning the sensations of his body, but soon his thoughts started wandering, his skin felt sensitive, he was awfully aware that his tongue was having a hard time finding a natural place to rest in his mouth. Was he breathing too quickly, or was it too slow? Maybe he wasn’t breathing deep enough. Why was it taking so long for him to sense the chakra around him?

_WHACK_

The sound of a fleshy tail hitting Naruto skull reverberated through the air. Sprawled on the ground, Naruto rubbed his head furiously.

“How many times do I have to tell you to not focus on your physical body. Your heart is in turmoil; it makes you blind to the world around you.” Lady Kiyo chided.

“I’m trying,” Naruto complained.

“Yes, you are trying, and that’s why I’m still teaching you. As long as you keep trying, I’ll continue, but you have to ask yourself how much time are you willing to spend training. The world moves faster than you, kid. But the more you rush, the harder it becomes to be calm.” Withdrawing to her throne of cushions, she continued, “Tell me about your last fight. I heard it was a rough one.”

Naruto quickly recounted the fight, carefully detailing the whole encounter. As he finished, he asked, “So what do you think?”

“I think it would have been easier for you to win if you had been able to cut through the crystals of that girl. How’s your progress with the sword.”

“It’s been slow. I still can’t cut materials harder than my sword,” Naruto replied gloomily.

“That’s the mark of a master. It’s not easy to reach. I would advise you to artificially sharpen your sword skills, the best way for you would be to learn wind manipulation.”

“I don’t know where to start with that.”

“Kiddo, I know you love your water manipulation, and it’s necessary for you to improve that so you could summon us. Wind manipulation, however, could be very helpful to you. I now Mito-chan taught you well, but you have to start looking for another teacher if you couldn’t figure it out on your own. You might have an easier time. It’s your natural affinity, after all.”

“I guess,” Naruto mumbled. It wasn’t that he hated wind or anything. His mother also had an affinity for wind. He didn’t know about his father, but Mito Uzumaki was a water user, and as her student, he had learned almost all of his ninjutsu from her. He hadn’t tried to learn wind manipulation because he did not have access to wind jutsus, so it seemed to be a waste of time. His chakra might have an affinity towards wind, but personally, he felt a stronger affinity towards water. He just loved it because water was so malleable, it was so easy to craft and give form.

Naruto spent the rest of his short time learning under Lady Kiyo, getting advice on how to improve his summoning and work out a way to form collaboration jutsus.

* * *

Danzo Shimura liked the silence of his base. It didn’t mean that he despised the hustle and bustle of places like the Hokage tower. It was because he felt that a shinobi should be quiet, silent as a shadow. The Root base housed dozens of shinobi at a given time, yet one would find it difficult to find any with their hearing and sight alone.

He sat at his table, reading through the various report. His operatives gathered information from all over the elemental regions. He had even ordered some of them to follow specific key individuals over the nations.

Picking up another piece of paper, he frowned. Kumo was leaking information about the Kyuubi jinchuriki. Placing the paper back on his desk, he leaned back on his chair and tried to make sense of the events.

He knew of the recent skirmish between the jinchuriki and Orochimaru’s squad. He suspected Orochimaru knew of the boy’s heritage, so it would be no surprise if he was the leak, or there could be another source, as it wasn’t hard to figure out the boy was an Uzumaki. It wouldn’t be too far-fetched to think that someone might have connected the dots.

He still felt that Orochimaru was up to something. He had closed up the line of communication between them, and recently he was aggressively building up his forces, as was Kumo. Both of them seemed to be preparing for war. If Konoha’s current situation continued, in a few years, he believed Konoha would be unable to catch up and militarise in time.

His Root operations had slowed down after Hiruzen had foolishly declared the organisation illegal. Before the Uchiha massacre, Root was one of the highest priority organisations in Konoha, and he could forcibly recruit children from even the various clans’ resource pool, except for the Hyuuga and the Uchiha. After finding out that they had no choice but to volunteer certain numbers of children, the Hyuuga elders decided to use the branch house for the matter. He could do nothing but decline the offer as he couldn’t stomach the thought of someone else having a leash on his operatives. The Uchiha were protected from his recruitment drive by their association with the police force. It was an exclusive Uchiha only organisation created by the second hokage; it held priority over everything short of war. Therefore unless an Uchiha shinobi volunteered themselves for Root, he couldn’t get his hands on them. He had planned to get some Uchiha shinobi from the massacre as his Root operatives were positioned to snatch a couple of children, but they were slaughtered, by who he wasn’t quite sure.

Within a week, he believed all the major villages would be receiving the news about the son of the Yellow Flash. Opening up his cabinet, he picked up a file from within. It contained the detailed observations of his operatives about Naruto Uzumaki. Looking through it, he could see that the boy was an excellent seed, capable of growing into a mighty tree. He could also see that the boy was capable of becoming the firm foundation of Konoha. Still, he was unsatisfied. Naruto Uzumaki’s motives and loyalties were unclear, and he didn’t like that one bit.

Standing up, he picked up his walking stick that was leaning on his table, and he walked out of his room, heading towards the Hokage tower. For now, he needed to talk to Hiruzen and devise a way to soften the news about Naruto’s heritage amongst the masses.

* * *

Neji decided to make a trip to his home to change into fresh clothes before going for his part-time job. It would be his second week on the job, and frankly, he didn’t know what to think. Naruto, his employer for the month, was quiet most of the time, content on doing his own thing after he had asked him to hand out fliers to the populace, mainly to the shinobi forces.

There have been no customers apart from Gai, and the only visitor to the shop he had seen was Tenten, who had taken to hang around the shop admiring the weapons in her spare time. At first, Neji had suspected the shop would go under after some time, considering it a foolish venture. That is until he had learned that Gai had happily paid Naruto the equivalent of two A-rank missions for the set of training equipment he had created. Now he understood why Naruto insisted on creating specialised equipment and weapons. He was targeting a different client base. Only time would tell if the shop could survive.

His life after the spar with Naruto, or more accurately described as a one-sided ass-kicking, Neji thought bitterly, had been confusing. Gai-sensei was slightly more subdued, which was a big deal. Tenten was eager to do more missions, even the D-rank ones, to earn more money. Lee was working harder than ever if that was possible, and he, Neji, was lost. He felt the world around him slowly crumbling.

He had thought long and hard over his choices, and still, he had reached the same conclusion, he was chained. There was nothing he could do, and no matter how he wished, he could not see a way out. He wondered if Naruto’s way of simply trying would in the future unfold to him a new direction. He envied the conviction Naruto had in his words, and he knew Naruto meant what he said. He couldn’t tell why he was so sure, but for a moment, back then, he had felt a connection between them.

After taking a shower, as he walked out of the building, he bumped into someone. Reflexively he activated his byakugan and glared at the offending person. Realising it was his cousin, Hinata, knocked on the ground, watching him with nearly vacant eyes, he scowled and swiftly walked away without offering assistance. Neji knew if he had shown such disrespect to anyone else from the main house other than Hinata, he would have received punishment, but he could not muster the patience to be respectful to her. She was weak, there was no fight in her eyes, and he despised her weakness.

With a sour mood, as his cousin’s apparent clumsiness could have cost him humiliation and pain, if anyone else had witnessed the collision, he entered the weapons shop. Picking up a mop, he started cleaning up the floor. He didn’t mind the menial tasks. He had lost the bet, and for the month, he was fully committed to it.

“What’s wrong?”

Neji didn’t turn towards Naruto as he heard the question opting to continue cleaning, “Nothing. Just doing my job.”

“You are angry about something. It’s all over your face.”

Neji looked up from his task and stared at Naruto impassively.

“Okay, fine, I can’t tell by your face, but I can tell something’s wrong.” Naruto insisted.

“It’s none of your business,” Neji replied coldly.

“I don’t think if you keep your problems to yourself, anything will change.” He usually wouldn’t have cared about Neji’s problem, but out of curiosity, he had looked into Neji’s background, and the Hyuuga-Kumo incident hit him too close to home. He knew there had also been an attempt to kidnap his mother once, and to this day, he felt furious about that.

“There is nothing to change,” Neji replied bitterly.

“Didn’t I say to you that if you don’t try, you wouldn’t know for sure.”

“I thought about it a lot, and I can think of no other way. Just leave it, okay,” Neji said irately.

“Tell me about your problems then. What’s the worst that can happen to you.”

“I could be put to death.” Neji sneered.

“For removing the seal?” Naruto asked.

“So, you know,” Neji asked dryly.

“Tell me, why do you want to be free, don’t get me wrong, I know it must feel terrible to be chained like a dog, but I haven’t seen such hostility from the other members of the branch house as you do.” Naruto probed. He knew he was making Neji angrier, but if it made him open up, then so be it.

“Because they are cowards, they have given into their roles as the inferior members of the clan,”

“But didn’t you say that destiny cannot be changed? Then why are you so resisting?”

“I will always be a servant, but I won’t ever be mediocre or weak. Despite the oppression of the main house, I will become the strongest Hyuuga marring their legacy. I will make it known that despite being from the branch house, Neji Hyuuga surpassed all others.” He said spitefully.

“So you are giving up on ever being free,” Naruto asked. He too, suffered a similar problem, retirement. He could not see a future where he could just live in peace. He would always be called for war. If he could ever grow old, with his back bent from age, his bones creaking and his joints aching from strain, he would die on the battlefield or keep fighting until Konoha decided he should retire as a jinchuriki, passing his burden onto others. He really didn’t want to keep fighting.

“I have thought about it, and there’s nothing I can do.”

“Are you sure about that? What if I tell you that I can look at your seal,” Naruto said.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea. Even if you can somehow remove it, I wouldn’t be free. The Hyuuga law would judge me as a traitor, there would be no one who could save me then, even the Hokage would be unable to step in.” Neji said. Although he did feel touched by Naruto’s offer. Thinking about it more, he continued, “You might even get put on trial for meddling in clan business.”

Naruto almost laughed at the thought. After all, he was not easily replaceable, “You don’t have to worry about me. I doubt the Hyuuga clan could do anything. Anyway, if you commission me to do something about the seal as a customer, then I am protected by Konoha’s law. There are several checks in place to protect businesses, as long as they do not participate in activities deemed illegal by the Hokage. These laws, along with many others like it, were placed during the reign of the First and Second Hokage to incentivise civilians and other merchants from the Land of Fire to migrate to Konoha.”

“Then, by your own admission, you would be charged for breaking the law.”

“Nope, I said deemed illegal by the Hokage, removing your seal is deemed illegal by Hyuuga clan law. There is nothing that states it is illegal, according to Konoha.”

“But the Hokage knows about it.” Neji pressed.

“He does know about it, but there is no official writing in place.” Naruto calmly elaborated, “Since the Hokage is not supposed to stick his nose in clan business, the issue was never brought up. Your issue also violates the Konoha directive that shinobi of Leaf only serves the Daimyo, the hokage, and the land itself, another law put in place to ensure the unification of various clans under a single banner. Shinobi are also military assets, so their loyalty is of great concern to the Hokage and the Daimyo. Now, since the Hyuuga clan isn’t an official department, I am pretty sure a case could be made that the main branch is breaking the law.”

Neji looked astonished; he was having trouble processing the information. After a while, he asked weakly, “Then why hasn’t anyone done something.”

“Didn’t you say the others were cowards?”

Neji scowled at Naruto. He was starting to hate the fact that Naruto seemed to enjoy throwing his words at him. Swallowing his pride, he asked, “There might be more to it. I don’t understand, please tell me.”

“It’s because it’s not worth it for the Hokage,” Naruto said. Seeing Neji growing angrier he continued, “Listen carefully, the kage of a village has a lot of responsibility, and their main concern above all else is the ensure stability of the village and keep the Daimyo happy. Under the current system, the Hyuuga clan is united, so they are unwilling to do anything about the situation. Now, consider the possibility that they free the branch house, which isn’t all that easy, then the hokage might gain the support of the branch house, but in the process lose the goodwill of the main branch as well as the other clans. Some might feel the hokage is abusing power and meddling in clan business. So, in the big scheme of things, the current situation is favourable to the leaf as a whole.”

“Then why would you tell me this,” Neji growled. It was cruel, to give hope and take it away, “If you already knew all of it beforehand, why pretend and ask me questions.”

“Well, I just wanted to know if you are willing to do whatever it takes, even after knowing all of this if there is a small chance would you be willing to plunge in,” Naruto said.

“But- but you said there was no way. If I remove the seal, not even the hokage would step in,” Neji said, his teeth clenched, the veins around his eyes almost visible.

“You have no imagination. If you try to change the branch house’s situation as you are right now, you will be branded as a traitor by the Hyuuga clan, but what if you held more political power than the whole clan,” Naruto spoke, slowly, deliberately as he, leaned forward, hinting Neji to think.

Neji looked at Naruto, comprehension slowly dawning on his face. The idea seemed to be so insane, he wasn’t sure he could even pull it off, “You want me to become the Hokage.” He whispered in disbelief.

“Yes. If you become hokage or even if you’re an official candidate, then I can work on removing your seal, a Hokage, after all, cannot be under the control of anyone else. The Hyuuga couldn’t outright stop you from running for the position. What are they gonna say? _‘We don’t want a hokage in our clan, the position is beneath us.’_ They can’t even interfere with the voting. The choice is made by the Daimyo and is later confirmed by the Jonin of Konoha. If you succeed, then you can start making small changes, and in the long run, even if you fail, you might be able to lay down enough groundwork to let your successors completely abolish the caged bird seal.” Naruto spoke fervently. He didn’t know if Neji would buy this idea he was pitching.

Neji felt that something wasn’t right. Why would Naruto know all of this, “Be honest with me. Why have you thought of this?”

“Good you are trying to know me better, that’s a good place to start if you want to be a hokage, public perception is important, be more friendly,” Naruto said.

“I’m serious. What do you want,” Neji pressed on.

“Do you know of the Uzumaki clan?” Naruto asked.

“There’s an Uzumaki clan?” Neji asked. He tried recalling anything, but his thought process was interrupted when he suddenly felt an oppressive weight fall on his shoulders, panicking he looked towards Naruto. He saw violet eyes blazing with anger, flecks of red like smouldering embers burning and vanishing. He suppressed the urge to activate his byakugan and ready himself to parry an attack. As quickly as the feeling has come, it disappeared almost as swiftly, leaving him with cold sweat running down his spine.

“The Uzumaki clan, my clan, was located in the islands of whirlpool. We are the distant cousins of the Senju and once held a very close relation to Konoha. Ushio, the hidden village of whirlpool, was destroyed sometimes ago. Konoha could not send reinforcements in time. The remaining clan members scattered throughout the nations, changing their names, their appearances, and going into hiding. No one came to Konoha for shelter. I want to have my people acknowledged, maybe build a home here for any that require one.” Naruto said almost mechanically, focusing on his words helped him keep his temper in check. He was still mad that Konoha was revising its history, only superficially acknowledging their lost allies.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Neji said solemnly, “Then wouldn’t it better for you to try and become the hokage yourself?”

“I don’t have an interest in the position,” Naruto said quickly, setting aside the fact that if he would even be considered for the position, he didn’t want to be stressed by the challenges of the job. Frankly, he felt that the hokage post required far too much sacrifice, he already had enough on his plate by just being the jinchuriki. “I just want to work on my sealing, my smithing, travel, things like that when I grow older.”

“So, you want me to become the Hokage and help you?”

“You will need all the support you can get, and when you succeed, you can support me back. I’m not asking you to do something immoral, I won’t ever ask you for that. I just want us both to be free of the shitty situations we are in.” Naruto expressed his thoughts as sincerely as he could.

“Do you really think it could work?”

“I’m not sure, but ask yourself this, are you willing to find out. To you, the hard work this would require, is it worth it?”

As he stood there, Neji recalled his father, helpless, pushed to death because he was weak, because the Hyuuga clan was weak, because Konoha was weak. He didn’t want that, he didn’t want to suffer, he honestly didn’t want the generations of branch members after him to suffer.

“I’m in, and I think I will need your help,” Neji replied sincerely. He also hoped that one day Naruto might tell him more about his problems. He heavily suspected there was a lot more he was hiding.

“Great. Let’s shake on it.” Naruto said happily as he extended his hand.

On this day, Neji Hyuuga had no idea that this little handshake would change his destiny, nor did he know that it would forge a strong bond between him and Naruto Uzumaki.

* * *

Hiruzen was feeling a bit off today. He had a feeling in his gut that something annoying was going to pop up. He felt his hunch solidify when his old friend and once bitter rival walked into his office. He watched Danzo stroll calmly towards his desk and take a seat.

“Danzo. What can I do for you?” Hiruzen asked.

Danzo patiently took out a folder and placed it onto the desk, “Take a look.”

Hiruzen quietly picked it up and started reading through t document, his eyebrows furrowing as he progressed, lines upon lines of wrinkles appearing on his aged face. “How sure are you?”

“Pretty sure, got it from a trusted source.”

“And who is this source of yours?” Hiruzen asked suspiciously.

“Just an old civilian friend of mine in Kumo heard some rumours. I asked some of my old contacts to get a rough picture.”

“Right,” Hiruzen knew Danzo was hiding his operatives, but right now, he had other matters to handle, “This could be a disaster if it isn’t handled correctly.”

“It was a bad idea to hide the information in the first place. It was unrealistic to think that no one would find out; I’m surprised no one did for this long.” Danzo said.

“I had no choice. When I made the decision the situation was volatile, Konoha was in ruins, manpower was low. I frankly didn’t have enough time to put the required security in detail. Losing the Uchiha didn’t help matters either. My Anbu and the jonin didn’t know the first thing about working as a substitute police force.” Hiruzen replied coldly, “Still, the situation isn’t that bad; even if the other villages find about Naruto, it isn’t as if they will suddenly start a war or something.”

“Not for being Minato’s son, no, but the boy is an Uzumaki and a Jinchuriki on top that. The boy might get the same level of interest as our most famous jonin shinobi. It’s true there wouldn’t be a war nor would someone come looking for him in Konoha, but beyond the walls, everyone’s eyes would be trained on him, and he is not strong enough to fend off the bounty hunters,” Danzo supplied. “either he gets stronger, or he shouldn’t leave for missions anymore.”

Hiruzen mulled over his friend’s suggestion, Naruto getting stronger was a matter of time; there’s not much he could do there, as for not letting him go out on missions, it would be hard to explain that to him. Still, it wasn’t as if he could not find a middle ground.

“You don’t have to worry about him Danzo, I’m calling Jiraiya back. He can look after Naruto for a while.” Hiruzen said.

“What about the boy? Are you going to tell him about his parentage? It would be prudent to tell him yourself if he hears it from an outside source, it could be disastrous.” Danzo asked.

“You are right. How about right now? There’s no need to delay the matter,” Hiruzen said decisively, rendering Danzo speechless. He wanted to know if Danzo had approached Naruto before. Through this meeting, he might be able to get an indication. There was also a chance that the situation would backfire, and Naruto would come to view Danzo as an authority figure by seeing him with the Hokage, however with Jiraiya coming in, it wouldn’t be hard to reverse that mentality.

As they waited, they discussed other measures they could put in place to slowly disseminate the news about Naruto to the populace.

Showing the swiftness of his shinobi Hiruzen was informed that Naruto was waiting outside his office not more than five minutes later. He told his secretary to send him in.

Naruto entered the room, smartly saluting the Hokage, “You asked for me, Hokage-sama?” Looking confused, he gave a short bow to Danzo, appearing unclear of his identity.

“This is Elder Shimura. He once held a position in the hokage council; he has since then retired,” Hiruzen said.

“Elder,” Naruto gave a deeper bow.

“Chunin Uzumaki,” Danzo said, acknowledging the gesture by dipping his head slightly.

“Naruto-kun take a seat, I have to tell you something.” Hiruzen said, “It’s about your parents.”

Naruto froze for a moment as he was sitting down, his hand clenched on the handle of the chair, creating small fractures on the surface. Taking a deep breath, he settled down, “I’m listening.”

“I always knew who they were, and I’m afraid that I have kept the information from you.” Hiruzen confessed candidly, “It is a failure on my part, but I wanted you to be sufficiently strong enough so that the knowledge would not be a burden to you.”

“Who were they?” Naruto asked, he knew who his mother was and he suspected his father’s identity, but this was a huge moment for him he could finally say with conviction that he was not a bastard, unwanted by his parents.

“Minato Namikaze the Fourth Hokage and Kushina Uzumaki.” Hiruzen stared intently at Naruto, waiting for his reaction.

Naruto simply closed his eyes and sat there in silence digesting the feeling, after a while, he asked, “So my father was the one who sealed the Kyuubi in me?”

Hiruzen heavily suspected Naruto knew about his parents, but he wasn’t sure if it was Danzo who had supplied the information or not, “Yes. For various reasons, that I’m not too sure about, he thought that you were the best choice.”

“Did they leave me anything?” Naruto asked.

“There’s some money in their bank account, I will transfer it to you as soon as I can. Your mother owned a house, your parents lived there, but it was destroyed in the Kyuubi attack. It was rebuilt later, no ones living there right now, I will give you the keys to the place. I also salvaged some odd knickknacks from the rubble, I have them stored in my house, come by later.” Hiruzen said.

“Thank you,” Naruto said sincerely he could not sense deceit from the Hokage so at least he knew he was giving him everything.

“There’s another thing Naruto-kun,” Hiruzen continued, “As I said that I had intended to tell you about your parents when you were strong enough, maybe after you made jonin.”

Naruto stared at Hiruzen listening, he wasn’t sure if he didn’t already know about his mother and father how he would have acted, “Something has happened to move your plan forward?”

“There’s been a leak, we are not sure from where but there has been some unconfirmed information circulating in the elemental nations about you being the son of the Yellow flash as well as information about your Jinchuriki status,” Hiruzen said. Naruto was taking the information far positively than he had thought, and he was certain it was because he already knew.

“I see.”

Danzo who had been listening and observing cut in. “There’s also the matter of the Konoha populace and their reaction towards the knowledge of your ancestry. I’m sure you are aware of their aversion to you, correct.”

Naruto almost flinched at the blunt statement, “I’m aware. You think they would react poorly towards me being the son of their hero.”

“They won’t react positively is all I can say. How do you think we should handle this matter.” Danzo asked.

Both Hiruzen and Naruto looked surprised. Hiruzen was going to interrupt Danzo before, but after hearing the question, he decided to keep quiet.

Naruto was conflicted he just wanted to be acknowledged as having parents, and he despised that even something as simple as that was marred in politics. After some thought, he said, “There’s no use hiding, but I also don’t think it would be right to announce it to the village right now. I believe the best course of action will be to update all my files, so it would seem that we are not hiding anything, this way, the rumours won’t turn into something malicious. Next tell this information officially to the most important people in Konoha, the elders, department heads, Anbu and the elite jonin. After a month maybe tell the clan heads. We can see how the situation unfolds from there.”

Hiruzen smiled, “That’s an excellent suggestion Naruto-kun, I believe with a few tweaks your idea would be the best course of action to take. You have shown exceptional thinking.”

Quickly thumbing through his personal calendar, he checked through the dates. “I believe you are ready for your special-jonin assessment, how about a week from now sound.”

“I will start making preparations, sir,” Naruto replied.

“Good, then you’re dismissed for today. If you want to find more information about your parents, my door is always open to you.” Hiruzen said.

“Thank you, sir, “Naruto said as he stood up and walked towards the door. He stopped when he reached the exit and asked, “I would like to pay my respects to my parents, could you tell me where they are buried?”

Hiruzen replied, “In the inner region of Konoha’s graveyard. I will tell the Anbu guarding the place that you are allowed in the area. You can visit the place tomorrow.”

Naruto nodded in understanding and walked out, fully intent on making a visit first thing in the morning.

* * *

The Land of Rain was small, it didn’t stretch far and wide. It was unlike the Land of Fire with its lush forest, verdant fields and colourful wildlife, a land of full bounty. Nor was it like Land of Rock with its hard metals and valuable gems or like the Land of Wind with shimmering gold buried in the desert. It did not have access to the beautiful water’s of the ocean, providing salt and fish like the Land of Water and Lightning.

The ground was soft here, always muddy with small streams crossing paths here and there. The constant rain decayed wooden structures, so the people of this land built their homes with metal, creating tall buildings to satisfy the need of the growing population. Those few intelligent people this land gave birth to developed large engines running on steam, to spread power and electricity.

The land wasn’t blessed; its people struggled, but they still thrived, what broke their spirit was the curse. Ame was a cursed land surrounded by tyrants. Large nations ravaged Rain’s villages and cities with their war. The curse was strong, but Ame had a saviour, a God, one who wished to free the suffering of humans, by spreading pain.

Pain looked through his eyes, watching, monitoring his land. Metals constructs, large pipes, towering structures, cables running between buildings, this was Amegakure. It held all his good memories and his bad ones. He loved this village. He had fought for the land, he had fought for his friends, and now he was fighting for its peace.

“Nagato”

Pain heard a distant sound calling for his attention, he knew the voice. It belonged to the only living person he trusted.

“Call me Pain, Konan,” He said as he withdrew his focus from his other bodies, giving his full attention to the woman in front of his true weakened body, hidden behind great walls.

“I understand,” Konan replied, “It’s about the nine tails. Naruto Uzumaki Konoha’s jinchuriki fought one of our shinobi squads, capturing them in the process.”

“Can he draw upon Kyuubi’s power?” Nagato calmly asked.

“The report said that he didn’t use it in that fight. Should we look into it?”

“No need, now’s not the time to capture him,” Nagato said. “Even if he could use the Kyuubi’s power, he would still be unable to stand against the power of God.”

Naruto Uzumaki, a member of his own lost clan, he wondered how close they were. It would be a shame to reap his life, but he knew it was necessary, in another life where the Uzumaki weren’t wiped out he wondered if both of them would have grown up on the same island.

But in this life he had only Konan left as his family, his brother was lost. He could find a way to bring him back, but he felt the world was still filled with too much strife and suffering, he would wait until he had reached his goal and then they would be together again.

Konan, Yahiko and Nagato.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Phew, I'm finally done. This felt like running a marathon. I also updated the first chapter of this fic, it required a lot of time to rework. It should flow better now.
> 
> About this chapter lot of stuff is going on this one, but the one thing I would like to address is Hinata. I don't like bashing. I promise I won't bash Hinata but I want everyone to understand that her portrayal in my fic might not be entirely positive (since there is no Naruto in her life she might be more depressed or colder, I haven't thought it through.) She would have character growth though but it won't be the main focus as her arc is now tied with Neji.
> 
> Please comment, knowing your thoughts and reading any feedback keeps me motivated to write more. Even simple comments are a big deal to me.

**Author's Note:**

> First of, this fic is heavily inspired by Toxicmew on AO3’s (XxMeWxX4444 on FFN) Mito’ Stratagem but I’m not as good a writer as they are and I’m not confident is writing it in that eerie dark style that they have for it, in fact this is my first time ever writing anything so this will be more lighter in tone and atmosphere.  
> Thank you for reading this fic if you find any typos, misspellings or grammatical mistakes please let me know. I’m studying for an English proficiency test and would appreciate any feedbacks or writing tips. The title of this fic is still a work in progress if you have any ideas I’m open to them.


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